LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON.  N.  J. 


PRESENTED  BY 


Mrs.   Huston  Dixon 


Division  ._-C>.'3-T  I 
Section -•- 1- ll  jQ 

62. 


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*H--^ ' 


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THE 

EPISTLES    OF    ST.    JOHN. 

TWENTY-ONE    DISCOURSES, 

EEitb  (Srak  %ext,  Compuratibc  '<3ci:stons,  ani  ^ot«a 
Chicflu  (Excgcticai. 


,/ 

WILLIAM    ALEXANDER,    D.D.,    D.C.L., 


Bf7 

1/ 


BRASENOSE  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 

LORD  BISHOP  OF  DERRY  AND  RAPHOE. 


NEW   YORK: 

A   C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON, 

5r  East  Tenth  Street,  near  Broadway. 

1893. 


I 


PREFACE. 

IT  is  now  many  years  ago  since  I  entered  upon  a 
study  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  John,  as  serious  and 
prolonged  as  was  consistent  with  the  often  distracting 
cares  of  an  Irish  Bishop.  Such  fruit  as  my  labours 
produced  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  appearing  in  the 
last  volume  of  the  Speaker's  Commentary  in  1881. 

Since  that  period  I  have  frequently  turned  again  to 
these  Epistles — subsequent  reflection  or  study  not 
seldom  filling  in  gaps  in  my  knowledge,  or  leading 
me  to  modify  former  interpretations.  When  invited 
last  year  to  resume  my  old  work,  I  therefore  embraced 
willingly  the  opportunity  which  was  presented  to  me. 

Let  me  briefly  state  the  method  pursued  in  this  book. 

I.  The  First  Part  contains  four  Discourses. 

(1)  In  the  first  Discourse  I  have  tried  to  place  the 
reader  in  the  historical  surroundings  from  which  (unless 
all  early  Church  history  is  unreal,  a  past  that  never  was 
present)  these  Epistles  emanated. 

(2)  In  the  second  Discourse  I  compare  the  Epistle 
with  the  Gospel.  This  is  the  true  point  of  orientation 
for  the  commentator.  Call  the  connection  between 
the   two  documents   what   we   may ;   be   the   Epistle 


vi  PREFACE. 

the  Hiercnymian  interpretation  precisely  as  it  stood,  not 
preface,  appendix,  moral  and  devotional  commentary, 
or  accompanying  encyclical  address  to  the  Churches, 
which  were  "  the  nurslings  of  John  "  ;  that  connection  is 
constant  and  pervasive.  Unless  this  principle  is  firmly 
grasped,  w'e  not  only  lose  a  defence  and  confirmation  of 
the  Gospel,  but  dissolve  the  whole  consistency  of  the 
Epistle,  and  leave  it  floating — the  thinnest  cloud  in  the 
whole  cloudland  of  mystic  idealism. 

(3)  The  third  Discourse  deals  with  the  polemical 
element  in  these  Epistles.  Some  commentators  indeed, 
like  the  excellent  Henry  Hammond,  "  spy  out  Gnostics 
where  there  are  none."  They  confuse  us  with  uncouth 
names,  and  conjure  up  the  ghosts  of  long-forgotten 
errors  until  we  seem  to  hear  a  theological  bedlam,  or  to 
see  theological  scarecrows.  Yet  Gnosticism,  Doketism, 
Cerinthianism,  certainly  sprang  from  the  teeming  soil 
of  Ephesian  thought ;  and  without  a  recognition  of  this 
fact,  we  shall  never  understand  the  Epistle.  Un- 
doubtedly, if  the  Apostle  had  addressed  himself  only 
to  contemporary  error,  his  great  Epistle  would  have 
become  completely  obsolete  for  us.  To  subsequent 
ages  an  antiquated  polemical  treatise  is  like  a  fossil 
scorpion  with  a  sting  of  stone.  But  a  divinely  taught 
polemic  under  transitory  forms  of  error  finds  principles 
as  lasting  as  human  nature. 

(4)  The  object  of  the  fourth  Discourse  is  to  bring 
out  the  image  of  St.  John's  soul — the  essentials  of  the 
spiritual  life  to  be  found  in  those  precious  chapters  which 
still  continue  to  be  an  element  of  the  life  of  the  Church. 


PREFACE.  vii 

Such  a  view,  if  at  all  accurate,  will  enable  the 
leader  to  contemplate  the  whole  of  the  Epistle  with 
the  sense  of  completeness,  of  remoteness,  and  of 
unity  which  arises,  from  a  general  survey  apart  from 
particular  difficulties.  An  ancient  legend  insisted  that 
St.  John  exercised  miraculous  power  in  blending  again 
into  one  the  broken  pieces  of  a  precious  stone.  We 
may  try  in  an  humble  way  to  bring  the^e  fragmentary 
particles  of  spiritual  gem-dust  together,  and  fuse  them 
\nto  one. 

II.  The  plan  pursued  in  the  second  part  is  this. 
The  First  Epistle  (of  which  only  I  need  now  speak)  is 
divided  into  ten  sections. 

The  sections  are  thus  arranged — 

(l)  The  text  is  given  in  Greek.  In  this  matter  I 
make  no  pretence  to  original  research ;  and  have 
simply  adopted  Tischendorf's  text,  with  occasional 
amendments  from  Dr.  Scrivener  or  Prof.  Westcott. 
At  one  time  I  might  have  been  tempted  to  follow 
Lachmann  ;  but  experience  taught  me  that  he  is 
"audacior  quam  limatior,"  and  I  held  my  hand.  The 
advantage  to  every  studious  reader  of  having  the 
divine  original  close  by  him  for  comparison  is  too 
obvious  to  need  a  word  more. 

With  the  Greek  I  have  placed  in  parallel  columns 
the  translations  most  useful  for  ordinary  readers — the 
Latin,  the  English  A.V.  and  R.V.  The  Latin  text  is 
that  of  the  "  Codex  Amiatinus,"  after  Tischendorf's 
splendid  edition  of  1854.     In  this  the  reader  will  find, 


PREFACE. 


more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  after  the  death 
of  St.  Jerome,  an  interpretation  more  diligent  and  more 
accurate  than  that  which  is  supplied  by  the  ordinary 
Vulgate  text.  The  saint  felt  "the  peril  of  presuming 
to  judge  others  where  he  himself  would  be  judged 
by  all ;  of  changing  the  tongue  of  the  old,  and  carrying 
back  a  world  which  was  growing  hoary  to  the  initial 
essay  of  infancy."  The  Latin  is  of  that  form  to 
which  ancient  Latin  Church  writers  gave  the  name  of 
"  rusticitas."  But  it  is  a  happy — I  had  almost  said  a 
divine — rusticity.  In  translating  from  the  Hebrew 
of  the  Old  Testament,  St.  Jerome  has  given  a  new 
life,  a  strange  tenderness  or  awful  cadence,  to  prophets 
and  psalmists.  The  voice  of  the  fields  is  the  voice  of 
Heaven  also.  The  tongue  of  the  people  is  for  once 
the  tongue  of  God.  This  Hebraistic  Latin  or  Latinised 
Hebrew  forms  the  strongest  link  in  that  mysterious 
yet  most  real  spell  wherewith  the  Latin  of  the  Church 
enthrals  the  soul  of  the  world.  But  to  return  to  our 
immediate  subject.  The  student  can  seldom  go  wrong 
by  more  than  a  hair's  breadth  when  he  has  before 
him  three  such  translations.  In  the  first  column 
stands  St.  Jerome's  vigorous  Latin.  The  second  con- 
tains the  English  A.V.,  of  which  each  clause  seems 
to  be  guarded  by  the  spirits  of  the  holy  dead,  as  well 
as  by  the  love  of  the  living  Church;  and  to  tell  the 
innovator  that  he  "  does  wrong  to  show  it  violence, 
being  so  majestical."  The  third  column  offers  to  view 
the  scholarlike — if  sometimes  just  a  little  pedantic  and 
provoking — accuracy  of  the  R.V.     To  this  comparison 


PREFACE.  ix 

of  versions  I  attach  much  significance.  Every  transla- 
tion is  an  additional  commentary,  every  good  translation 
the  best  of  commentaries. 

I  have  ventured  with  much  hesitation  to  add  upon 
another  column  in  each  section  a  translation  drawn  up 
by  myself  for  my  own  private  use ;  the  greater  portion 
of  which  was  made  a  year  or  two  before  the  publica- 
tion of  the  R.V.  Its  right  to  be  here  is  this,  that  it 
affords  the  best  key  to  my  meaning  in  any  place 
where  the  exposition  may  be  imperfectly  expressed.* 

(2)  One  or  more  Discourses  are  attached  to  most  of 
the  sections.  In  these  I  may  have  seemed  sometimes 
to  have  given  myself  a  wide  scope,  but  I  have  tried  to 
make  a  sound  and  careful  exegesis  the  basis  of  each. 
And  I  have  throughout  considered  myself  bound  to 
draw  out  some  great  leading  idea  of  St.  John  with 
conscientious  care. 

(2)  The  Discourses  (or  if  there  be  no  Discourse  in 

'  I  venture  to  call  attention  to  the  rendering  "  verj'."  It  enables  the 
translator  to  mark  the  important  distinction  between  two  words  ; 
dXij^^s,  factually  true  and  real,  as  opposed  to  that  which  in  point 
of  fact  is  mendacious ;  d\Tidiv6s,  ideally  true  and  real,  that  which 
alone  realizes  the  idea  imperfectly  expressed  by  something  else.  This 
is  one  of  St.  John's  favourite  words.  In  regard  to  aydirri  1  have  not 
had  the  courage  of  my  convictions.  The  word  "charity"  seems  to  me 
almost  providentially  preserved  for  the  rendering  of  that  term.  It  is 
not  without  a  purpose  that  ?pws  is  so  rigorously  excluded  from  the 
New  Testament.  The  objection  that  "  charity  "  conveys  to  ordinary 
English  people  the  notion  of  mere  material  alms  is  of  httle  weight. 
If  "  charity  "  is  sometimes  a  little  metallic,  is  not  "  love  "  sometimes 
a  little  maundering?  I  agree  with  Canon  Evans  that  the  word, 
strictly  speaking,  should  be  always  translated  "charity"  when  alone, 
"love"  when  in  regimen.  Yet  I  have  not  been  bold  enough  to  put 
"God  is  charity  "  for  "  God  is  love." 


X  PREFACE. 

the  section,  the  text  and  versions)  are  followed  by  short 
notes,  chiefly  exegetical,  in  which  I  have  not  willingly 
passed  by  any  real  difficulty. 

I  have  not  wished  to  cumber  my  pages  with  constant 
quotations.  But  in  former  years  I  have  read,  in  some 
cases  with  much  care,  the  following  commentators — St. 
Augustine's  Tractatus,  St.  John  Chrysostom's  Homilies 
on  the  Gospel  (full  of  hints  upon  the  Epistles),  Cornelius 
a  Lapide  ;  of  older  post-Reformation  commentators,  the 
excellent  Henry  Hammond,  the  eloquent  Dean  Hardy, 
the  precious  fragments  in  Pole's  Synopsis — above  all,  the 
inimitable  Bengel ;  of  moderns,  Dusterdieck,  Huther, 
Ebrard,  Neander ;  more  recently,  Professor  Westcott, 
whose  subtle  and  exquisite  scholarship  deserves  the 
gratitude  of  every  student  of  St.  John.  Of  Haupt  I 
know  nothing,  with  the  exception  of  an  analysis  of 
the  Epistle,  which  is  stamped  with  the  highest  praise 
of  so  refined  and  competent  a  judge  as  Archdeacon 
Farrar.  But  having  read  this  hst  fairly  in  past 
years,  I  am  now  content  to  have  before  me  nothing 
but  a  Greek  Testament,  the  Grammars  of  Winer  and 
Donaldson,  the  New  Testament  lexicons  of  Bretsch- 
neider,  Grimm,  and  Mintert,  with  Tromm's  "Concor- 
dantia  LXX."  For,  on  the  whole,  I  really  prefer  St. 
John  to  his  commentators.  And  I  hope  I  am  not 
ungrateful  for  help  which  I  have  received  from 
them,  when  I  say  that  I  now  seem  to  myself  to  imder- 
stand  him  better  without  the  dissonance  of  their 
many  voices.  "Johannem  nisi  ex  Johanna  ipso 
non  intellexeris." 


PREFACE.  is 

III.  It  only  remains  to  commend  this  book,  such 
as  it  is,  not  only  to  theological  students,  but  to 
general  readers,  who  I  hope  will  not  be  alarmed 
by  a  few  Greek  words  here  and  there. 

I  began  my  fuller  study  of  St.  John*s  Epistle  in  the 
noonday  of  life ;  I  am  closing  it  with  the  sunset  in 
my  eyes.  I  pray  God  to  sanctify  this  poor  attempt  to 
the  edification  of  souls,  and  the  good  of  the  Church. 
And  I  ask  all  who  may  find  it  useful,  to  offer  their 
intercessions  for  a  blessing  upon  the  book,  and 
upon  its   author. 

WILLIAM  DERRY  AND  RAPHOE. 

The  Palace,  Londonderry, 
February  6th,  1889. 


Merciful  God,  we  beseech  Thee  to  cast  Thy  bright  beams  of 
light  upon  Thy  Church,  that  it  being  enlightened  by  the  doctrine 
of  Thy  blessed  Apostle  and  Evangelist  St.  John,  may  so  walk  in 
the  light  of  Thy  truth,  that  it  may  at  length  a^ttain  to  the  light  of 
everlasting  life,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen. 


CONTENTS. 


rACK 

Preface       •••••••-        ^.v 


PART  /. 

DISCOURSE    I. 
The  Surroundings  of  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John      3 

DISCOURSE    II. 

The  Connection  of  the  Epistle  with  the  Gospel  of 
St.  John      -       -       --       -       -       -       -       -21 

DISCOURSE    III. 

The    Polemical   Element    in    the    First    Epistle   of 
St.  John      ------...39 

DISCOURSE    IV. 
The   Image  of   St.  John's   Soul  in   His  Epistix        -    54 


x:v  COXTENTS. 

FART  II. 

PAGE 

Some  General  Rules  for  the  Interpretation  of  the 
First  Epistle  of  St.  John        -----    75 

SECTION    I. 
Text  and  Versions  ---•«•-       -79 

DISCObRSE    1. 
Analysis  and  Theory  of  St.  John's  Gospel         •       -    80 

DISCOURSE  II. 
St.  John's  Gospel  Historical  not  Ideological    •       •    8S 

SECTION    II. 
Text  and  Versions  -•--•••-  100 

DISCOURSE    IIL 
Extent  of  the  Atonement       --••••  102 

DISCOURSE    IV. 
Missionary  Application  of  the  Extent  of  the  Atone- 
ment   •       •--«--••-  106 

SECTION    III.    (i) 
Text  and  Versions  -       •       •       •       •       •       •       -n? 

DISCOURSE    V. 
The  Influence  of  the  Great  Life  Walk  a  Personal 
Influence   -       -       -       •       -       -       •       •       -118 

SECTION    III.    (2) 
Text  and  Versions  -       •       -       -       -       •       -       -133 


cox  TINTS.  XV 

SECTION    III.    (3) 

PAGE 

Text  and  Versions  --------  134 

DISCOURSE    VL 
The  World  which  we  must  not.  Love  -       -       -       -  136 

DISCOURSE    VII. 
Use  and  Abuse  of   the  Sense  of  the  Vanity  of   the 
World        ---------149 

SECTION    IV. 
Text  and  Versions  --------  164 

DISCOURSE    VIII. 
Knowing  All  Things        ---«•«-  166 

SECTION    V. 
Text  and  Versions  --------  179 

SECTION    VI. 
Texts  and  Versions-       ----••-  185 

DISCOURSE    IX. 
Lofty  Ideals  Perilous  unless  Applied-       -       •       -188 

SECTION    VII. 
Text  and  Versions  ----••••  204 

SECTION  VIII. 
Text  and  Versions  --•-••       *•  207 

DISCOURSE    X. 
Boldness  in  the  Day  of  Judgment         -       -       -       -  210 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

SECTION    IX. 

PAGE 

Text  and  Versions  ----•••-  220 

DISCOURSE    XI. 
Birth  and  Victory  ----•••-  223 

DISCOURSE    XII. 
The   Gospel  as  a   Gospel    of  Witness;    the  Three 
Witnesses  ---------  236 

DISCOURSE    XIII. 
The  Witness  of  Men  (applied  to  the  Resurrection)-  241 

DISCOURSE    XIV. 
Sin  unto  Death        ----••--  254 

DISCOURSE    XV. 
The  Terrible  Truism  which  has  no  Exception  -       -  260 

SECTION    X. 
Text  and  Versions  ---••••-  274 

SECOND    EPISTLE. 
Text  and  Versions  --------  279 

DISCOURSE  XVI 
Theology  and  Life  in  Kyria's  Letter  -       •       •       -  282 

THIRD   EPISTLE. 
Text  and  Versions  --------297 

DISCOURSE  xvn. 
The  Quietness  of  True  Religion  -       .       •       •       -  300 


PART    I. 


"JOHANKIS    EpISTOLJE,    ULTIMUSQUE    PKIMiE   VEKSICULUS,     IN    EPIIESUM 
IMPRIMIS   CONVENIUNT." 

(Bengel  in  Ac/,  xix.  21.) 


DISCOURSE    I. 

THE  SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF 
ST.  fOHN. 

•  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols," — I  John  v.  21, 

AFTER  the  example  of  a  writer  of  genius,  preachers 
and  essayists  for  the  last  forty  years  have  con- 
stantly applied — or  misapplied — some  lines  from  one 
of  the  greatest  of  Christian  poems.  Dante  writes 
of  St.  John — 

"As  he,  who  looks  intent, 
And  strives  with  searching  ken,  how  he  may  see 
The  sun  in  his  eclipse,  and,  through  decline 
Of  seeing,  loseth  power  of  sight:  so  I 
Gazed  on  that  last  resplendence." ' 

The  poet  meant  to  be  understood  of  the  Apostle's 
spiritual  splendour  of  soul,  of  the  absorption  of  his 
intellect  and  heart  in  his  conception  of  the  Person  of 
Christ  and  of  the  dogma  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  By 
these  expositors  of  Dante  the  image  is  transferred  to 
the  style  and  structure  of  his  writings.  But  confusion 
of  thought  is  not  magnificence,  and  mere  obscurity  is 
never  sunlike.  A  blurred  sphere  and  undecided  outline 
is  not  characteristic  of  the  sun  even  in  eclipse.  Dante 
never  intended  us  to  understand  that  St.  John  as  a  writer 

'  Gary's  Dante,  Paradiso,  xxv.  1 1 7.  Stanley's  Sermons  and  Essays 
on  the  Apostolic  Age,  242. 


4  SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

was  distinguished  by  a  beautiful  vagueness  of  senti- 
ment, by  bright  but  tremulously  drawn  lines  of 
dogmatic  creed.  It  is  indeed  certain  that  round  St. 
John  himself,  at  the  time  when  he  wrote,  there  were 
many  minds  affected  by  this  vague  mysticism.  For 
them,  beyond  the  scanty  region  of  the  known,  there 
was  a  world  of  darkness  whose  shadows  they  desired 
to  penetrate.  For  them  this  little  island  of  life  was 
surrounded  by  waters  into  whose  depths  they  affected 
to  gaze.  They  were  drawn  by  a  mystic  attraction  to 
things  which  they  themselves  called  the  "shadows," 
the  "depths,"  the  "silences."  But  for  St.  John  these 
shadows  were  a  negation  of  the  message  which  he 
delivered  that  "  God  is  light,  and  darkness  in  Him  is 
none."  These  silences  were  the  contradiction  of  the 
Word  who  has  once  for  all  interpreted  God.  These 
depths  were  "  depths  of  Satan."  ^  For  the  men  who 
were  thus  enamoured  of  indefiniteness,  of  shifting  senti- 
ments and  flexible  creeds,  were  Gnostic  heretics.  Now 
St.  John's  style,  as  such,  has  not  the  artful  variety,  the 
perfect  balance  in  the  masses  of  composition,  the 
finished  logical  cohesion  of  the  Greek  classical  writers. 
Yet  it  can  be  loftily  or  pathetically  impressive.  It  can 
touch  the  problems  and  processes  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  world  with  a  pencil-tip  of  deathless  light,  or 
compress  them  into  symbols  which  are  solemnly  or 
awfully  picturesque.^  Above  all  St.  John  has  the 
faculty  of  enshrining  dogma  in  forms  of  statement 
which  are  firm  and  precise — accurate  enough  to  be 
envied  by  philosophers,  subtle  enough  to  defy  the 
passage  of  heresy  through  their  finely  drawn  yet 
powerful  lines.     Thus  in  the  beginning  of  his  Gospel 

•  Apoc.  ii.  24.  'John  xiii.  30  cf.    I  John  ii.  II. 


V.  21.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.  $ 

all  false  thought  upon  the  Person  of  Him  who  is  the 
living  theology  of  His  Church  is  refuted  by  anticipa- 
tion— that  which  in  itself  or  in  its  certain  consequences 
unhumanises  or  undeifies  the  God  Man ;  that  which 
denies  the  singularity  of  the  One  Person  who  was 
Incarnate,  or  the  reality  and  entireness  of  the  Man- 
hood of  Him  who  fixed  His  Tabernacle  ^  of  humanity 
in  IS.  * 

It  is  therefore  a  mistake  to  look  upon  the  First 
Epistle  of  St.  John  as  a  creedless  composite  of  mis- 
cellaneous sweetnesses,  a  disconnected  rhapsody  upon 
philanthropy.  And  it  will  be  well  to  enter  upon  a 
serious  perusal  of  it,  with  a  conviction  that  it  did  not 
drop  from  the  sky  upon  an  unknown  place,  at  an 
unknown  time,  with  an  unknown  purpose.  We  can 
arrive  at  some  definite  conclusions  as  to  the  circum- 
stances from  which  it  arose,  and  the  sphere  in  which 
it  was  written — at  least  if  we  are  entitled  to  say  that 
we  have  done  so  in  the  case  of  almost  any  other  ancient 
document  of  the  same  nature. 

Our  simplest  plan  will  be,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
trace  in  the  briefest  outline  the  career  of  St.  John  after 
the  Ascension  of  our  Lord,  so  far  as  it  can  be  followed 
certainly  by  Scripture,  or  with  the  highest  probability 
from  early  Church  history.     We  shall  then  be  better 

'   iaK7iV(j3(T€V  if  711UV. 

*  This  characteristic  of  St.  John's  style  is  powerfully  expressed  by 
the  great  hymn-writer  of  the  Latin  Church. 

♦'  Hebet  sensus  exors  styli  j 
Stylo  scribit  tarn  subtili, 

Fide  tarn  catholica, 
Ne  de  Verbo  salutari 
Posset  quicquam  refragari 
Pravitas  hseretica." 

Adam  of  Si,  Victor,     Seq,  xxxii. 


6  SUKKOUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EFISTLE. 

able  to  estimate  the  degree  in  v  hich  the  Epistle  fits 
into  the  framework  of  local  thought  and  circumstances 
in  which  we  desire  to  place  it. 

Much  of  this  biography  can  best  be  drawn  out  by 
tracing  the  contrast  between  St.  John  and  St.  Peter, 
which  is  conveyed  with  such  subtle  and  exquisite 
beauty  in  the  closing  chapter  of  the  fourth  Gospel. 

The  contrast  between  the  two  Apostles  is  one  of 
history  and  of  character. 

Historically  the  work  done  by  each  of  them  for  the 
Church  differs  in  a  remarkable  way  from  the  olher. 

We  might  have  anticipated  for  one  so  dear  to  our 
Lord  a  distinguished  part  in  spreading  the  Gospel 
among  the  nations  of  the  world.  The  tone  of  thought 
revealed  in  parts  of  his  Gospel  might  even  have  seemed 
to  indicate  a  remarkable  aptitude  for  such  a  task. 
St.  John's  peculiar  appreciation  of  the  visit  of  the 
Greeks  to  Jesus,  and  his  preservation  of  words  which 
show  such  deep  insight  into  Greek  religious  ideas, 
would  apparently  promise  a  great  missionary,  at  least 
to  men  of  lofty  speculative  thought.'  But  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  St.  John  is  first  overshadowed,  then 
effaced,  by  the  heroes  of  the  missionary  epic,  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul.  After  the  close  of  the  Gospels  he  is 
mentioned  five  times  only.  Once  his  name  occurs  in 
a  list  of  the  Apostles.^  Thrice  he  passes  before  u.s 
with  Peter.^  Once  again  (the  first  and  last  time  v.?hen 
we  hear  of  St.  John  in  personal  relation  with  St.  Paul) 
he  appears  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  with  two 
others,  James  and  Cephas,  as  reputed  to  be  pillars  of 
the  Church.*  But  whilst  we  read  in  the  Acts  of  his 
taking   a    certain    part    in    miracles,    in    preaching,    in 

'  John  xii.  20—34,  csfecially  ver,  24.         •  Acts  lii.  4,  v.  13,  viii.  14. 
'  Acts  i.  ij  *  Gal.  ii.  9. 


V.2I.]     SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.  7 

confirmation  ;  while  his  boldness  is  acknowledged  by 
adversaries  of  the  faith ;  not  a  line  of  his  individual 
teaching  is  recorded.  He  walks  in  silence  by  the  side 
of  the  Apostle  who  was  more  fitted  to  be  a  missionary 
pioneer/ 

With  the  materials  at  our  command,  it  is  difficult 
to  say  how  St.  John  was  employed  whilst  the  first 
great  advance  of  the  cross  was  in  progress.  We  know 
for  certain  that  he  was  at  Jerusalem  during  the  second 
visit  of  St.  Paul.  But  there  is  no  reason  for  conjecturing 
that  he  was  in  that  city  when  it  was  visited  by  St.  Paul 
on  his  last  voyage  ^  (a.d.  6o)  ;  while  we  shall  presently 
have  occasion  to  show  how  markedly  the  Church 
tradition  connects  St.   John  with   Ephesus. 

We  have  next  to  point  out  that  this  contrast  in 
the  history  of  the  Apostles  is  the  result  of  a  contrast 
in  their  characters.  This  contrast  is  brought  out  with 
a  marvellous  prophetic  symbolism  in  the  miraculous 
draught  of  fishes  after  the  Resurrection. 

First  as  regards  St.  Peter. 

"  When  Simon  Peter  heard  that  it  was  the  Lord,  he 
girt  his  fisher's  coat  unto  him  (for  he  was  naked),  and 
did   cast  himself  into   the  sea."  ^     His  was  the  warm 


*  Acts  iii.  4,  iv.  13,  viii.  14.  The  singular  and  interesting  manu- 
script of  Patinos  (At  irepioooi  tou  6eo\oyou)  attributed  to  St.  John's 
disciple,  Prochorus,  seems  to  recognise  that  St.  John's  chief  mission 
was  not  that  of  working  miracles.  Even  in  a  kind  of  duel  of  prodigies 
between  him  and  the  sinister  magician  of  Palmos,  the  following 
occurs.  "Kynops  Esked  a  young  man  in  the  rr'iltiii.de  where  his 
father  then  was.  'My  father  is  dead,'  he  replied,  *he  went  down 
yonder  in  a  storm.'  Turning  to  John,  the  magician  said, —  Come, 
biing  up  this  young  man's  father  from  the  dead.'  'I  have  not  come 
here,'  answered  the  Apostle,  'to  raise  the  dead,  but  to  deliver  the 
living  from  their  errors.' " 

*  Gal.  ii.  9  ;  Acts  xxi.  17,  sqq. 

*  John  xxi.  7« 


8  SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  F/RS7  ERISTLE. 

energy,  the  forward  impulse  of  young  life,  the  free 
bold  plunge  of  an  impetuous  and  chivalrous  nature  into 
the  waters  which  are  nations  and  peoples.  In  he  must; 
on  he  will.  The  prophecy  which  follows  the  thrice 
renewed  restitution  of  the  fallen  Apostle  is  as  follows : 
"  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  When  thou  wast  young, 
thou  girdest  thyself,  and  walkedst  whither  thouwouldest: 
but  when  thou  shalt  be  old,  thou  shalt  stretch  forth 
thy  hands,  and  another  shall  gird  thee,  and  carry  thee 
whither  thou  wouldest  not.  This  spake  He,  signifying 
by  what  death  He  should  glorify  God,  and  when  He 
had  spoken  this.  He  saith  unto  him,  Follow  Me."* 
This,  we  are  told,  is  obscure ;  but  it  is  obscure  only 
as  to  details.  To  St.  Peter  it  could  have  conveyed  no 
other  impression  than  that  it  foretold  his  martyrdom. 
"  When  thou  wast  young,"  points  to  the  tract  of  years 
up  to  old  age.  It  has  been  said  that  forty  is  the  old 
age  of  youth,  fifty  the  youth  of  old  age.  But  our  Lord 
does  not  actually  define  old  age  by  any  precise  date. 
He  takes  what  has  occurred  as  a  type  of  Peter's 
youthfulness  of  heart  and  frame — "  girding  himself," 
with  rapid  action,  as  he  had  done  shortly  before; 
"walking,"  as  he  had  walked  on  the  white  beach  of 
the  lake  in  the  early  dawn  ;  "  whither  thou  wouldest," 
as  when  he  had  cried  with  impetuous  half  defiant 
independence,  "  I  go  a  fishing,"  invited  by  the  auguries 
of  the  morning,  and  of  the  water.  The  form  of  ex- 
pression seems  to  indicate  that  Simon  Peter  was  not 
to  go  far  into  the  dark  and  frozen  land ;  that  he 
was  to  be  growing  old,  rather  than  absolutely  old.' 
Then   should   he   stretch   forth   his    hands,    with   the 

•  Ibid.,  vers.  1 7,  i8,  19. 

*  The    beginning  of  old    age  would    account   sufficiently  for  the 
anticipation  of  death  in  2  Peter  i.   13,   14,  15. 


V.2I.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 


dignified  resignation  of  one  who  yields  manfully  to 
that  from  which  nature  would  willingly  escape.  "  This 
spake  He,"  adds  the  evangelist,  "signifying  by  what 
death  he  shall  glorify  God."  ^  What  fatal  temptation 
leads  so  many  commentators  to  minimise  such  a  pre- 
diction as  this  ?  If  the  prophecy  were  the  product  of 
a  later  hand  added  after  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter, 
it  certainly  would  have  wanted  its  present  inimitable 
impress  of  distance  and  reserve. 

It  is  in  the  context  of  this  passage  that  we  read 
most  fully  and  truly  the  contrast  of  our  Apostle's  nature 
with  that  of  St.  Peter.  St.  John,  as  Chrysostom  has 
told  us  in  deathless  words,  was  loftier,  saw  more 
deeply,  pierced  right  into  and  through  spiritual  truths,^ 
was  more  the  lover  of  Jesus  than  of  Christ,  as  Peter 
was  more  the  lover  of  Christ  than  of  Jesus.  Below 
the  different  work  of  the  two  men,  and  determining  it, 
was  this  essential  difference  of  nature,  which  they  carried 
with  them  into  the  region  of  grace.  St.  John  was  not 
so  much  the  great  missionary  with  his  sacred  restless- 
ness ;  not  so  much  the  oratorical  expositor  of  prophecy 
with  his  pointed  proofs  of  correspondence  between 
prediction  and  fulfilment,  and  his  passionate  declama- 
tion driving  in  the  conviction  of  guilt  like  a  sting  that 
pricked  the  conscience.  He  was  the  theologian  ;  the 
quiet  master  of  the  secrets  of  the  spiritual  life;  the 
calm  strong  controversialist  who  excludes  error  by 
constructing  truth.  The  work  of  such  a  spirit  as  his 
was  rather  like   the  finest  product  of  venerable  and 

'  So^acrei  ver.  19.  The  lifelike  shall  (not  should)  is  part  of  the  many 
minute  but  vivid  touches  which  make  the  whole  of  this  scene  so  full 
of  motion  and  reality — *'  I  go  a  fishing  "  (ver.  3) ;  "  about  two  hundred 
cubits  "  (ver.  8)  ;  the  accurate  "  beach  "  (ver.  4). 

*  Si.opa.Ti.KUT epos.  S.  Joann.  Chrysost. — Horn,  injoann. 


lo        SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

long  established  Churches.  One  gentle  word  of  Jesus 
sums  up  the  biography  of  long  years  which  apparently 
were  without  the  crowded  vicissitudes  to  which  other 
Apostles  were  exposed.  If  the  old  Church  histoiy  is 
true,  St.  John  was  either  not  called  upon  to  die  (or  Jesus, 
or  escaped  from  that  death  by  a  miracle.  That  one 
word  of  the  Lord  was  to  become  a  sort  of  motto  of 
St.  John.  It  occurs  some  twenty-six  times  in  the  brief 
pages  of  these  Epistles.  "  If  I  will  that  he  abide  " — 
abide  in  the  bark,  in  the  Church,  in  one  spot,  in  life,  in 
spiritual  communion  with  Me.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
finally,  that  not  only  spiritual,  but  ecclesiastical  con- 
solidation is  attributed  to  St.  John  by  the  voice  of 
history.  He  occupied  himself  with  the  visitation  of 
his  Churches  and  the  development  of  Episcopacy.  So 
in  the  sunset  of  the  Apostolic  age  stands  before  us  the 
mitred  form  of  John  the  Divine.  Early  Christianity 
had  three  successive  capitals — Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
Ephesus.  Surely,  so  long  as  St.  John  lived,  men 
looked  for  a  Primate  of  Christendom  not  at  Rome  but 
at  Ephesus. 

How  different  were  the  two  deaths !  It  was  as  if 
in  His  words  our  Lord  allowed  His  two  Apostles  to 
look  into  a  magic  glass,  wherein  one  saw  dimly  the 
hurrying  feet,  the  prelude  to  execution  which  even 
the  saint  wills  not ;  the  other  the  calm  life,  the  gathered 
disciples,  the  quiet  sinking  to  rest.  In  the  clear 
obscure  of  that  prophecy  we  may  discern  the  outline 
of  Peter's  cross,  the  bowed  figure  of  the  saintly  old 
man.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  John  *' taj-ricd.'"  He 
has  left  the  Church  three  pictures  that  can  never  fade 
— in  the  Gospel  the  picture  of  Christ,  in  the  Epistles 
the  picture  of  his  own  soul,  in  the  Apocalypse  the 
picture  of  Heaven. 


V.2I.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.        II 

So  far  we  have  relied  almost  exclusively  upon  in- 
dications supplied  by  Scripture.  We  now  turn  to 
Church  history  to  fill  in  some  particulars  of  interest. 

Ancient  tradition  unhesitatingly  believed  that  the 
latter  years  of  St.  John's  prolonged  life,  were  spent  in  . 
the  city  of  Ephesus,  or  province  of  Asia  Minor,  with 
the  Virgin-Mother,  the  sacred  legacy  from  the  cross, 
under  his  fostering  care  for  a  longer  or  shorter  portion 
of  those  years.  Manifestly  he  would  not  have  gone  to 
Ephesus  during  the  lifetime  of  St.  Paul.  Various  circum- 
stances point  to  the  period  of  his  abode  there  as  begin- 
ning a  little  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (a.d.  6y).  He 
lived  on  until  towards  the  close  of  the  first  century  of 
the  Christian  era,  possibly  two  years  later  (a.d.  102) 
With  the  date  of  the  Apocalypse  we  are  not  directly 
concerned,  though  we  refer  it  to  a  very  late  period  in 
St.  John's  career,  believing  that  the  Apostle  did  not 
return  from  Patmos  until  just  after  Domitian's  death. 
The  date  of  the  Gospel  may  be  placed  between  a.d. 
80  and  90  And  the  First  Epistle  accompanied  the 
Gospel,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent  discourse. 

The  Epistle  then,  like  the  Gospel,  and  contempora- 
neously with  it,  saw  the  light  in  Ephesus,  or  in  its 
vicinity.  This  is  proved  by  three  pieces  of  evidence 
of  the  most  unquestionable  solidity. 

(l)  The  opening  chapters  of  the  Apocalypse  con- 
tain an  argument,  which  cannot  be  explained  away 
for  the  connection  of  St.  John  with  Asia  Minor  and 
with  Ephesus.  And  the  argument  is  independent  of 
the  authorship  of  that  wonderful  book.  Whoever  wrote 
the  Book  of  the  Revelation  must  have  felt  the  most 
absolute  conviction  of  St.  John's  abode  in  Ephesus 
and  temporary  exile  to  Patmos.  To  have  written  with 
a  special  view  of  acquiring  a  hold  upon  the  Churches 


12         SUI^ROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

of  Asia  Minor,  while  assuming  from  the  very  first  as 
fact  what  they,  more  than  any  other  Churches  in  the 
world,  must  have  known  to  h&  fiction,  would  have  been 
to  invite  immediate  and  contemptuous  rejection.  The 
three  earliest  chapters  of  the  Revelation  are  unintelli- 
gible, except  as  the  real  or  assumed  utterance  of  a 
Primate  (in  later  language)  of  the  Churches  of  Asia 
Minor.  To  the  inhabitants  of  the  barren  and  remote 
isle  of  Patmos,  Rome  and  Ephesus  almost  represented 
the  world ;  their  rocky  nest  among  the  waters  was 
scarcely  visited  except  as  a  brief  resting-place  for 
those  who  sailed  from  one  of  those  great  cities  to  the 
other,  or  for  occasional  traders  from  Corinth. 

(2)  The  second  evidence  is  the  fragment  of  the 
Epistle  of  Irenaeus  to  Florinus  preserved  in  the  fifth 
book  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Eusebius.  Irenaeus 
nentions  no  dim  tradition,  appeals  to  no  past  which 
was'never  present.  He  has  but  to  question  his  own 
recollections  of  Polycarp,  whom  he  remembered  in 
early  life.  "  Where  he  sat  to  talk,  his  way,  his  manner 
of  life,  his  personal  appearance,  how  he  used  to  tell  of 
his  intimacy  with  John,  and  with  the  others  who  had 
seen  the  Lord."^  Irenaeus  elsewhere  distinctly  says 
that  "  John  himself  issued  the  Gospel  while  living  at 
Ephesus  in  Asia  Minor,  and  that  he  survived  in  that 
city  until  Trajan's  time."  ^ 

(3)  The  third  great  historical  evidence  which  con- 
nects St.  John  with  Ephesus  is  that  of  Polycrates, 
Bishop  of  Ephesus,  who  wrote  a  synodical  epistle  to 
Victor  and  the  Roman  Church  on  the  quartodeciman 
question,  toward  the  close  of  the  second  century. 
Polycrates  speaks  of  the  great  ashes  which  sleep  in 


»  Ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.,  v.  20,  '  Adv.  Hceres.,  lib.  iii.,  ch.  I. 


V.21.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.        13 

Asia  Minor  until  the  Advent  of  the  Lord,  when  He 
shall  raise  up  His  saints.  He  proceeds  to  mention 
Philip  who  sleeps  in  Hierapolis;  two  of  his  daughters  ; 
a  third  who  takes  her  rest  in  Ephesus,  and  "John 
moreover,  who  leaned  upon  the  breast  of  Jesus,  who 
was  a  high  priest  bearing  the  radiant  plate  of  gold 
upon  his  forehead."  ^ 

This  threefold  evidence  would  seem  to  render  the 
sojourn  of  St.  John  at  Ephesus  for  many  years  one 
of  the  most  solidly  attested  facts  of  earlier  Church 
history. 

It  will  be  necessary  for  our  purpose  to  sketch  the 
general  condition  of  Ephesus  in  St.  John's  time. 

A  traveller  coming  from  Antioch  of  Pisidia  (as  St.  Paul 
did  A.D.  54)  descended  from  the  mountain  chain  which 
separates  the  Meander  from  the  Cayster.  He  passed 
down  by  a  narrow  ravine  to  the  **  Asian  meadow " 
celebrated  by  Homer.  There,  rising  from  the  valley, 
partly  running  up  the  slope  of  Mount  Coressus,  and 
again  higher  along  the  shoulder  of  Mount  Prion, 
the  traveller  saw  the  great  city  of  Ephesus  towering 
upon  the  hills,  with  widely  scattered  suburbs.  In  the 
first  century  the  population  was  immense,  and  included 
a  strange  mixture  of  races  and  religions.  Large 
numbers  of  Jews  were  settled  there,  and  seem  to 
have  possessed  a  full  religious  organisation  under  a 
High  Priest  or  Chief  Rabbi.     But  the  prevailing  super- 

'  lepeui  rb  iriraKov  ireifopeKws — "Pontifex  ejus  (sc.  Domini)  auream 
laminam  in  fronte  habens."  So  translated  by  S.  Hieron.  Lib.  de  Vir, 
Illtist.,  xlv.  The  iriToKov  is  the  LXX.  rendering  of  |*^V,  the  pro- 
jecting leaf  or  plate  of  radiant  gold  (Exod.  xxviii,  26,  xxxix.  30), 
associated  with  the  "mitre"  (Lev.  viii.  9).  Whether  Polycrates 
speaks  literally,  or  wishes  to  convey  by  a  metaphor  the  impression 
of  holiness  radiating  from  St.  John's  face,  we  probably  cannot  decide. 


14         SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

stition  was  the  worship  of  the  Ephesian  Artemis.  The 
great  temple,  the  priesthood  whose  chief  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  a  royal  or  quasi-royal  rank,  the  affluence  of 
pilgrims  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  the  industries 
connected  with  objects  of  devotion,  supported  a  swarm 
of  devotees,  whose  fanaticism  was  intensified  by  their 
material  interest  in  a  vast  religious  establishment. 
Ephesus  boasted  of  being  a  theocratic  city,  the  possessor 
and  keeper  of  a  temple  glorified  by  art  as  well  as  by 
devotion.  It  had  a  civic  calendar  marked  by  a  round 
of  splendid  festivities  associated  with  the  cultus  of  the 
goddess.  Yet  the  moral  reputation  of  the  city  stood 
at  the  lowest  point,  even  in  the  estimation  of  Greeks. 
The  Greek  'character  was  efl^eminated  in  Ionia  by 
Asiatic  manners,  and  Ephesus  was  the  most  dissolute 
city  of  Ionia.  Its  once  superb  schools  of  art  became 
infected  by  the  ostentatious  vulgarity  of  an  ever-increas- 
ing parvenu  opulence.  The  place  was  chiefly  divided 
between  dissipation  and  a  degrading  form  of  literature. 
Dancing  and  music  were  heard  day  and  night ;  a  pro- 
tracted revel  was  visible  in  the  streets.  Lascivious 
romances  whose  infamy  was  proverbial  were  largely 
sold  and  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Yet  there  were 
not  a  few  of  a  different  character.  In  that  divine 
climate,  the  very  lassitude,  which  was  the  reaction  from 
excessive  amusement  and  perpetual  sunshine,  disposed 
many  minds  to  seek  for  refuge  in  the  shadows  of  a 
visionary  world.  Some  who  had  received  or  inherited 
Christianity  from  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  or  from  St.  Paul 
himself,  thirty  or  forty  years  before,  had  contaminated 
the  purity  of  the  faith  with  inferior  elements  derived 
from  the  contagion  of  local  heresy,  or  from  the  infiltra- 
tion of  pagan  thought.  The  Ionian  intellect  seems  to 
have   delighted   in   imaginative   metaphysics;  and    for 


V.2I.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.         15 

minds  undisciplined  by  true  logic  or  the  training  of 
severe  science  imaginative  metaphysics  is  a  dangerous 
form  of  mental  recreation.  The  adept  becomes  the 
slave  of  his  own  formulae,  and  drifts  into  partial  insanity 
by  a  process  which  seems  to  himself  to  be  one  of  in- 
disputable reasoning.  Other  influences  outside  Chris- 
tianity ran  in  the  same  direction.  Amulets  were 
bought  by  trembling  believers.  Astrological  calculations 
v/ere  received  with  the  irresistible  fascination  of  terror. 
Systems  of  magic,  incantations,  forms  of  exorcism,  tradi- 
tions of  theosophy,  communications  with  demons — all  that 
we  should  now  sum  up  under  the  head  of  spiritualism^ 
laid  their  spell  upon  thousands.  No  Christian  reader 
of  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
will  be  inclined  to  doubt  that  beneath  all  this  mass  of 
superstition  and  imposture  there  lay  some  dark  reality 
of  evil  power.  At  all  events  the  extent  of  these  practices, 
these  "  curious  arts  "  in  Ephesus  at  the  time  of  St.  Paul's 
visit,  is  clearly  proved  by  the  extent  of  the  local  literature 
which  spiritualism  put  forth.  The  value  of  the  books 
of  magic  which  were  burned  by  penitents  of  this  class, 
is  estimated  by  St.  Luke  at  fifty  thousand  pieces  of 
silver — probably  about  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  our  money  !  ^ 

Let  us  now  consider  what  ideas  or  allusions  in  the 
Epistles  of  St.  John  coincide  with,  and  fit  into,  this 
Ephesian  contexture  of  life  and  thought. 

We  shall  have  occasion  in  the  third  discourse  to 
refer  to  forms  of  Christian  heresy  or  of  semi-Christian 

•  Acts  xix,  20,  21.  In  this  description  of  Ephesus  the  writer  ha3 
constantly  had  in  view  the  passages  to  which  he  rel'erred  in  the 
Speaker's  Commentary,  N.T.,  iv.,  274,  276.  He  has  also  studied  M. 
Renan's  Saint  Paul.  chap,  xii.,  and  the  authorities  cited  in  the  notes, 
PP-  329.  350- 


i6         SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

speculation  indisputably  pointed  to  by  St.  John,  and 
prevalent  in  Asia  Minor  when  the  Apostle  wrote.  But 
besides  this,  several  other  points  of  contact  with  Ephesus 
can  be  detected  in  the  Epistles  before  us.  (i)  The  first 
Epistle  closes  with  a  sharp  decisive  warning,  expressed 
in  a  form  which  could  only  have  been  employed  when 
those  who  were  addressed  habitually  lived  in  an  atmo- 
sphere saturated  with  idolatry,  where  the  social  tempta- 
tions to  come  to  terms  with  idolatrous  practices  were 
powerful  and  ubiquitous.  This  was  no  doubt  true  of 
many  other  places  at  the  time,  but  it  was  pre-eminently 
true  of  Ephesus,  Certain  of  the  Gnostic  Christian  sects 
in  Ionia  held  lax  views  about  "  eating  things  sacrificed 
unto  idols,"  although  fornication  was  a  general  accom- 
paniment of  such  a  compliance.  Two  of  the  angels  of 
the  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  within  the  Ephesian  group 
— the  angels  of  Pergamum  and  of  Thyatira — receive 
especial  admonition  from  the  Lord  upon  this  subject. 
These  considerations  prove  that  the  command,  "Chil- 
dren, guard  yourselves  from  the  idols,"  had  a  very 
special  suitability  to  the  conditions  of  life  in  Ephesus. 
(2)  The  population  of  Ephesus  was  of  a  very  composite 
kind.  Many  were  attracted  to  the  capital  of  Ionia  by  its 
reputation  as  the  capital  of  the  pleasures  of  the  world. 
It  was  also  the  centre  of  an  enormous  trade  by  land  and 
sea.  Ephesus,  Alexandria,  Antioch  and  Corinth  were 
the  four  cities  where  at  that  period  all  races  and  all 
religions  of  civilised  men  were  most  largely  represented. 
Now  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John  has  a  peculiar  breadth 
in  its  representation  of  the  purposes  of  God.  Christ 
is  not  merely  the  fulfilment  of  the  hopes  of  one  particular 
people.  The  Church  is  not  merely  destined  to  be  the 
home  of  a  handful  of  spiritual  citizens.  The  Atonement 
is  as  wide  as  the  race  of  man.     "  He  is  the  propitiation 


V.2I.]    SURJiOUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.        17 

for  the  whole  world;"  "we  have  seen,  ard  bear 
witness  that  the  Father  sent  the  Son  as  Saviour  of  the 
world."  ^  A  cosmopolitan  population  is  addressed  in  a 
cosmopolitan  epistle.  (3)  We  have  seen  that  the  gaiety 
and  sunshine  of  Ephesus  was  sometimes  darkened  by 
the  shadows  of  a  world  of  magic,  that  for  some  natures 
Ionia  was  a  land  haunted  by  spiritual  terrors.  He 
must  be  a  hasty  student  who  fails  to  connect  the 
extri ordinary  narrative  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of 
the  Acts  with  the  ample  and  awful  recognition  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  of  the  mysterous  conflict  in 
the  Christian  life  against  evil  intelligences,  real,  though 
unseen.^  The  brilliant  rationalist  may  dispose  of  such 
things  by  the  convenient  and  compendious  method 
of  a  sneer.  "  Such  narratives  as  that "  (of  St.  Paul's 
struggle  with  the  exorcists  at  Ephesus)  "are  dis- 
agreeable little  spots  in  everything  that  is  done  by  the 
people.  Though  we  cannot  do  a  thousandth  part  of 
what  St.  Paul  did,  we  have  a  system  of  physiology  and 
of  medicine  very  superior  to  his."^  Perhaps  he  had 
a  system  of  spiritual  diagnosis  very  superior  to  ours. 
In  the  epistle  to  the  Angel  of  the  Church  of  Thyatira, 
mention  is  made  of  "  the  woman  Jezebel,  which  calleth 
herself  a  prophetess,"*  who  led  astray  the  servants  of 
Christ.  St.  John  surely  addresses  himself  to  a  com- 
munity where  influences  precisely  of  this  kind  exist, 
and  are  recognised  when  he  writes, — "  Beloved,  believe 

'  St.  John  ii.  2,  iv.  14. 

*  "We  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against,"  etc 
Eph.  vi.  12-17. 

'  Saint  Paul,  Renan,  318,  319. 

*  For  the  almost  certain  reference  here  to  the  Chaldean  Sybil  Sam- 
bethe,  see  Apoc.  ii.  20,  Archdeacon  Lee's  note  in  Speaker's  Commentary, 
N.T.,  iv.  527,  534,  535,  and  Dean  Blakesley  (art.  Thyatira,  Diet,  of 
the  Bible), 

2 


l8         SURROUNDINCr  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE. 

not  every  spirit,  but  try  the  spirits  whether  they  are 
of  God  :  because  many  false  prophets  are  gone  out 
into  the  world.  .  .  .  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  not 
Jesus  is  not  of  God."^  The  Church  or  Churches, 
which  the  First  Epistle  directly  contemplates,  did  not 
consist  of  men  just  converted.  Its  whole  language 
supposes  Christians,  some  of  whom  had  grown  old 
and  were  "  fathers "  in  the  faith,  while  others  who 
were  younger  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  having  been  born 
and  brought  up  in  a  Christian  atmosphere.  They 
are  reminded  again  and  again,  with  a  reiteration  which 
would  be  unaccountable  if  it  had  no  special  significance, 
that  the  commandment  "that  which  they  heard,"  "the 
word,"  "the  message,"  is  the  same  which  they  had 
from  the  beginning."^  Now  this  will  exactly  suit  the 
circumstances  of  a  Church  like  the  Ephesian,  to  which 
another  Apostle  had  originally  preached  the  Gospel 
many  years  before.^ 

•  I  John  iv.  I,  3. 

^  I  John  ii.  7,  ii.  24,  iii.  1 1 ;  2  John  v.  5,  6.  The  passage  in 
ii.  24  is  a  specimen  of  that  simple  emphasis,  that  presentation  of  a 
truth  or  duty  under  two  aspects,  which  St.  John  often  produces 
merely  by  an  inversion  of  the  order  of  the  words.  "  Ye — what  ye 
heard  irom  the  beginning  let  it  abide  in  you.  If  what  from  the  begin- 
nhig  ye  heard  abide  in  you  "  (S  rjKOija-aTe  air  dpxv^  ...  6  air'  dpxrji 
■^Koia-are).  The  emphasis  in  the  first  clause  is  upon  the /rtc^  of  their 
having  heard  the  message ;  in  the  second  upon  this  feature  of  the 
message — that  it  was  given  in  the  begimdng  of  Christianity  amongst 
them,  and  kept  unchanged  until  the  present  time. 

•  Acts  xviii.  18-21.  To  these  general  links  connecting  our  Epistles 
with  Ephesus,  a  few  of  less  importance,  yet  not  without  significance, 
may  be  added.  The  name  of  Demetrius  (3  John  12)  is  certainly  sugges- 
tive of  the  holy  city  of  the  earth-mother  (Actsxix.  24,  38).  Vitruvius 
assigns  the  completion  of  the  temple  of  Ephesus  to  an  architect  of 
the  name,  and  calls  him  "servus  Dianae."  St.  John  in  his  Gospel 
adopts,  as  if  instinctively,  the  computation  of  time  which  was  used 
in   Asia   Minor  (John    iv.   6,   xix.  4— Hefel.  Martyrium   S.  Polycarp. 


V.2I.]    SURROUNDINGS  OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE.        19 

On  the  whole,  we  have  in  favour  of  assigning  these 
Epistles  to  Ionian  and  Ephesian  surroundings  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  external  evidence.  The  general 
characteristics  of  the  First  Epistle  consonant  with  the 
view  of  their  origin  which  we  have  advocated  are 
briefly  these,  (i)  It  is  addressed  to  readers  who  were 
encompassed  by  peculiar  temptations  to  make  a 
compromise  with  idolatry.  (2)  It  has  an  amplitude 
and  generality  of  tone  which  befitted  one  who  wrote 
to  a  Church  which  embraced  members  from  many 
countries,  and  was  thus  in  contact  with  men  of  many 
races  and  religions.  (3)  It  has  a  peculiar  solemnity 
of  reference  to  the  invisible  world  of  spiritual  evil  and 
to  its  terrible  influence  upon  the  human  mind.  (4)  The 
Epistle  is  pervaded  by  a  desire  to  have  it  recognised 
that  the  creed  and  law  of  practice  which  it  asserts  is 
absolutely  one  with  that  which  had  been  proclaimed  by 
earlier  heralds  of  the  cross  to  the  same  community. 
Every  one  of  these  characteristics  is  consistent  with 
the  destination  of  the  Epistle  for  the  Christians  of 
Ephesus  in  the  first  instance.  Its  polemical  element, 
which  we  are  presently  to  discuss,  adds  to  an  accumula- 

xxi.).  On  the  same  principle  he  speaks  in  the  Apocalypse  of  "  day 
and  night"  (Apoc.  iv.  8,  vii.  15,  xii.  lo,  xiv.  ii,  xx.  lo) ;  St.  Paul,  on 
the  ether  hand,  tpeaks  of  "night  and  day"  (l  Tim.  v.  5).  It  is  a 
very  real  indication  of  the  accuracy  of  the  report  of  words  in  the  Acts 
that,  while  St.  Luke  himself  uses  either  form  indifferently  (Luke  ii.  37, 
xviii.  2),  St.  Paul,  as  quoted  by  him,  always  says  "  night  and  day  "  (Acts 
XX.  31,  xxvi.  7).  Is  it  merely  fanciful  to  conjecture  that  the  unusual 
ay  aOo-noiQ:v  (3  John  ll)  may  bean  allusion  to  the  astrological  language 
in  which  alone  the  term  is  ever  used  outside  a  very  few  instances  in 
the  sacred  writers  ?  "  He  only  is  under  a  good  star,  and  has  beneficent 
omens  for  his  life."  Balbillus,  one  of  the  most  famous  astrologers 
of  antiquity,  the  confidant  of  Nero  and  Vespasian,  was  an  Ephesian, 
and  almost  supreme  in  Ephesus,  not  long  before  St.  John's  arrival 
tliere.     Sueton.,  Nerott.,  36. 


20         SUI?KOUNDINCS  OF  THE  F/UST  EriSTLE. 

tion  of  coincidences  which  no  ingenuity  can  volatilise 
away.  The  Epistle  meets  Ephesian  circumstances;  it 
also  strikes  at  Ionian  heresies. 

A'ia-so-Louk/  the  modern  name  of  Ephesus,  appears 
to  be  derived  from  two  Greek  words  which  speak  of 
St.  John  the  divine,  the  theologian  of  the  Church.  As 
the  memory  of  the  Apostle  haunts  the  city  where  he 
so  long  lived,  even  in  its  fall  and  long  decay  under  its 
Turkish  conquerors, — and  the  fatal  spread  of  the 
malaria  from  the  marshes  of  the  Cayster — so  a  memory 
of  the  place  seems  to  rest  in  turn  upon  the  Epistle, 
and  we  read  it  more  satisfactorily  while  we  assign  to 
it  the  origin  attributed  to  it  by  Christian  antiquity, 
and  keep  that  memory  before  our  minds. 

'  ATa-so-Louk,  a  corruption  of  ir/ioi  6e6\oyos,  holy  theologian  (or 
a/yla  $£o\6yov,  holy  city  of  the  theolcgian).  Some  scholars,  however, 
assert  that  the  word  is  often  pronounced  and  written  aiaslyk,  with  the 
common  Turki&h  termination  lyk.    See  S.  Paul  (Renan,  342,  note  2), 


DISCOURSE   II. 

THE  CONNECTION'  OF   THE  EPISTLE   WITH  THB 
GOSPEL   OF  ST.  JOHN. 

^vvadv(n  fikv  yap  d.\\-q\oii  rb  eiayyiXiov  Kal  r]  iirtffToX^ 
Dionys.  Alexandr.  ap  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vii.,  25. 


"And  these  things  write  we  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may  be  fulL* 
—1  John  i.  4. 

FROM  the  wholesale  burning  of  books  at  Ephesus, 
as  a  consequence  of  awakened  convictions,  the 
most  pregnant  of  all  commentators  upon  the  New  Testa- 
ment has  drawn  a  powerful  lesson.  "  True  religion," 
says  the  writer,  "  puts  bad  books  out  of  the  way." 
Ephesus  at  great  expense  burnt  curious  and  evil  volumes, 
and  the  "  word  of  God  grew  and  prevailed."  And  he 
proceeds  to  show  how  just  in  the  very  matter  where 
Ephesus  had  manifested  such  costly  penitence,  she  was 
rewarded  by  being  made  a  sort  of  depository  of  the 
most  precious  books  which  ever  came  from  human  pens. 
St.  Paul  addresses  a  letter  to  the  Ephesians.  Timothy 
was  Bishop  of  Ephesus  when  the  two  great  pastoral 
Epistles  were  sent  to  him.*  All  St.  John's  writings 
point  to  the  same   place.      The  Gospel  and  Epistles 

'  Bengal,  on  Acts  xix.  19,  20,  finds  a  re-ference  to  manuscripts  of 
some  of  the  synoptical  Gospels  and  of  the  Epistles  in  2  Tim.  iv.  13, 
and  conjectures  that,  after  St.  Paul's  martyrdom,  Timothy  carried 
them  with  him  to  Ephesus. 


22  THE   CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

were  written  there,  or  with  primary  reference  to  the 
capital  of  lonia.^  The  Apocalypse  was  in  all  proba- 
bility first  read  at  Ephesus. 

Of  this  group  of  Ephesian  books  we  select  two  of 
primary  importance — the  Gospel  and  First  Epistle  of 
St.  John.  Let  us  dwell  upon  the  close  and  thorough 
connection  of  the  two  documents,  upon  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Epistle  by  the  Gospel,  by  whatever  name 
we  may  prefer  to  designate  the  connection. 

It  is  said  indeed  by  a  very  high  authority,  that  while 
the  "  whole  Epistle  is  permeated  with  thoughts  of  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ,"  yet  "  direct  references 
to  facts  of  the  Gospel  are  singularly  rare."  More 
particularly  it  is  stated  that  "  we  find  here  none  of 
the  foundation  and  (so  to  speak)  crucial  events  sum- 
marised in  the  earliest  Christian  confession  as  we 
still  find  them  in  the  Apostle's  creed."  And  among 
these  events  are  placed,  "the  Birth  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
the  Crucifixion,  the  Resurrection,  the  Ascension,  the 
Session,  the  Coming  to  Judgment." 

To  us  there  seems  to  be  some  exaggeration  in  this 
way  of  putting  the  matter.  A  writing  which  accom- 
panied a  sacred  history,  and  which  was  a  spiritual  com- 
ment upon  that  very  history,  was  not  likely  to  repeat 
the  history  upon  which  it  commented,  just  in  the 
same  shape.  Surely  the  Birth  is  the  necessary  con- 
dition of  having  come  in  the  flesh.  The  incident  of 
the    piercing    of   the  side,  and   the   water  and   blood 

'  Renan's  curious  theory  that  Rom.  xvi.  l-i6  is  a  sheet  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  accidentally  misplaced,  restc-  upon  a  sup- 
posed prevalence  of  Ephesian  names  in  the  case  of  those  who  are 
greeted.  Archdeacon  Gifford's  refutation,  and  his  solution  of  an 
unquestionable  difficulty,  seems  entirely'  satisfactory.  {Speaker's 
Commentary,  m  he,  vol.  iii,,  New  Testament.) 


i.  4.)  WITH  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  JOHN.  23 

which  flowed  from  it,  is  distinctly  spoken  of;  and  in 
that  the  Crucifixion  is  implied.  Shrinking  with  shame 
from  Jesus  at  His  Coming,  which  is  spoken  of  in 
another  verse,  has  no  meaning  unless  that  Coming  be 
to  Judgment.^  The  sixth  chapter  is,  if  we  may  so  say, 
the  section  of  "  the  Blood,"  in  the  fourth  Gospel.  That 
section  standing  in  the  Gospel,  standing  in  the  great 
Sacrament  of  the  Church,  standing  in  the  perpetually 
cleansing  and  purifying  efficacy  of  the  Atonement — ever 
present  as  a  witness,  which  becomes  personal,  because 
identified  with  a  Living  Personality  ^ — finds  its  echo  and 
counterpart  in  the  Epistle  towards  the  beginning  and 
near  the  close.' 

We  now  turn  to  that  which  is  the  most  conclusive 
evidence  of  connection  between  two  documents — one 
historical,  the  other  moral  and  spiritual — of  which 
literary  composition  is  capable.  Let  us  suppose  that 
a  writer  of  profound  thoughtfulness  has  finished,  after 
long  elaboration,  the  historical  record  of  an  eventful 
and  many-sided  life — a  life  of  supreme  importance  to 
a  nation,  or  to  the  general  thought  and  progress  of 
humanity.  The  book  is  sent  to  the  representatives 
of  some  community  or  school.  The  ideas  which  its 
subject  has  uttered  to  the  world,  from  their  breadth  and 
from  the  occasional  obscurity  of  expression  incident  to 


'  It  has  become  usual  to  say  that  the  Epistle  does  not  advert  to 
John  iii.  or  John  vi.  To  us  it  seems  that  every  mention  of  the  Birth 
of  God  is  a  reference  to  John  iii.  (i  John  ii.  23,  iii.  9,  iv,  7,  v.  1-4.) 
The  word  aXixi  occurs  once  only  in  the  fourth  Gospel  outside  the 
sixth  chapter  (xix.  34;  for  i.  13  belongs  to  physiology).  Four  times 
we  find  it  in  that  chapter — vi.  53,  54,  55,  56.  Each  mention  of  the 
"  Blood  "  in  connection  with  our  Lord  does  advert  to  John  vi. 

*  The  masc.  part,  ot  napTvpovfTes  is  surely  very  remarkable  with  the 
three  neuters  (to  irveOfia,  to  iioup,  t6  aliia)  l  John  v.  7,  8. 

»  I  John  i.  7,  V.  6,  8. 


24  THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

all  great  spiritual  utterances,  need  some  elucidation. 
The  plan  is  really  exhaustive,  and  combines  the  facts 
of  the  life  with  a  full  insight  into  their  relations  ;  but  it 
may  easily  be  missed  by  any  but  thoughtful  readers.  The 
author  will  accompany  this  main  work  by  something 
which  in  modern  language  we  might  call  an  introduction, 
or  appendix,  or  advertisement,  or  explanatory  pamphlet, 
or  encyclical  letter.  Now  the  ancient  form  of  literary 
composition  rendered  books  packed  with  thourht  doubly 
difficult  both  to  read  and  write  ;  for  they  did  not  admit 
foot-notes,  or  marginal  analyses,  or  abstracts.  St.  John 
then  practically  says,  first  to  his  readers  in  Asia  Minor, 
then  to  the  Church  for  ever — "  with  this  life  of  Jesus 
I  send  you  not  only  thoughts  for  your  spiritual  benefit, 
moulded  round  His  teaching,  but  something  more  ;  I 
send  you  an  abstract,  a  compendium  of  contents,  at 
the  beginning  of  this  letter ;  I  also  send  you  at  its 
close  a  key  to  the  plan  on  which  my  Gospel  is  con- 
ceived." And  surely  a  careful  reader  of  the  Gospel 
at  its  first  publication  would  have  desired  assistance 
exactly  of  this  nature.  He  would  have  wished  to  have 
a  synopsis  of  contents,  short  but  comprehensive,  and 
a  synoptical  view  of  the  author's  plan — of  the  idea 
which  guided  him  in  his  choice  of  incidents  so  momen- 
tous and  of  teaching  so  varied. 

We  have  in  the  First  Epistle  two  synopses  of  the 
Gospel  whicii  correspond  with  a  perfect  precision  to 
these  claims.^  We  have :  (i)  a  synopsis  of  the  contents 
of  the  Gospel ;  (2)  a  synoptical  view  of  the  conception 
from  which  it  was  written. 

I.  We  find  in  the  Epistle  at  the  very  outset  a  synopsis 
of  the  contents  of  the  Gospel. 

'  See  note  A.  at  the  end  of  this  Discourse,  which  shows  that  there 
are,  in  truth,  four  such  summaries. 


i.4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   lOHN.  21 

"That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that  which 
we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
that  which  we  gazed  upon,  and  our  hands  handled — / 
speak  concerning  the  Word  who  is  the  Life — that 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard,  declare  we  unto  you 
also." 

What  are  the  contents  of  the  Gospel  ?  (i)  A  lofty 
and  dogmatic  prooemium,  which  tells  us  of  "  the  Word 
who  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  —  in  Whom 
was  life."  (2)  Discourses  and  utterances,  sometimes 
running  on  through  pages,  sometimes  brief  and  broken. 

(3)  ^Vorks,  sometimes  miraculous,  sometimes  wrought 
into  the  common  contexture  of  human  life — looks, 
influences,  seen  by  the  very  eyes  of  St.  John  and 
others,  gazed  upon  with  ever  deepening  joy  and  wonder. 

(4)  Incidents  which  proved  that  all  this  issued  from 
One  who  was  intensely  human  ;  that  it  was  as  real 
as  life  and  humanity — historical  not  visionary ;  the 
doing  and  the  effluence  of  a  Manhood  which  could 
be,  and  which  was,  grasped  by  human  hands. 

Such  is  a  synopsis  of  the  Gospel  precisely  as  it  is 
given  in  the  beginning  of  the  First  Epistle,  (i)  The 
Epistle  mentions  first,  "  that  which  was  from  the 
beginning."  There  is  the  compendium  of  the  pro- 
oemium of  the  Gospel.  (2)  One  of  the  most  important 
constituent  parts  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be  found  in  its 
ample  preservation  of  dialogues,  in  which  the  Saviour  is 
one  interlocutor ;  of  monologues  spoken  to  the  hushed 
hearts  of  the  disciples,  or  to  the  listening  Heart  of 
the  Father,  yet  not  in  tones  so  low  that  their  love  did 
not  find  it  audible.  This  element  of  the  narrative  is 
summed  up  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  in  two  words — 
"  That  which  we    heard."  *     (3)  The  works   of  bene- 

'  8  aK7}K6ap.f». 


26  THE   CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

volence  or  power,  the  doings  and  sufferings ;  the 
pathos  or  joy  which  spring  up  from  them  in  the  souls 
of  the  disciples,  occupy  a  large  portion  of  the  Gospel. 
All  these  come  under  the  heading,  "  that  which  we 
have  seen  with  our  eyes,^  that  which  we  gazed  upon,"  ^ 
with  one  unbroken  gaze  of  wonder  as  so  beautiful, 
and  of  awe  as  so  divine.'  (4)  The  assertion  of  the 
reality  of  the  Manhood^  of  Him  who  was  yet  the  Life 
manifested — a  reality  through  all  His  words,  works, 
sufferings — finds  its  strong,  bold  summary  in  this  com- 
pendium of  the  contents  of  the  Gospel,  "  and  our  hands 
have  handled."  Nay,  a  still  shorter  compendium  fol- 
lows :  (i)  The  Life  with  the  Father.  (2)  The  Life 
manifested.* 

2.  But  we  have  more  than  a  synopsis  which  embraces 
the   contents  of  the   Gospel  at   the  beginning  of  the 

'  8  €wpd.Kaiiev  toTs  6(p0a\/j,o'i  rjfjLwv. 

*  Jc  hn  XX.  20. 

*  6  fdeaffdniOa,  I  John  i.  I.     The  same  word  is  used  in  John  i.  14, 

*  John  xix.  27  would  express  this  in  the  most  palpable  form.  But 
it  is  constantly  understood  through  the  Gospel.  The  tenacity  of 
Doketic  error  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  Chrysostom,  preaching  at 
Antioch,  speaks  of  it  as  a  popular  error  in  his  day.  A  little  later, 
orthodox  ears  were  somewhat  offended  by  some  beautiful  lines  of  a 
Greek  sacred  poet,  too  little  known  among  us,  who  combines  in  a 
singular  degree  Roman  gravity  with  Greek  grace.  St.  Romanus 
(a.d.  491)  represents  our  Lord  as  saying  of  the  sinful  woman  who 
became  a  penitent 

TTji'  ^p^^acrav  tx"'! 
&  ovK  t'fipe^e  ^udbs 
}//i\oh  t6t€  Toh  daKpvffV, 

"  Which  with  her  tears,  then  pure, 
Wetted  the  feet  the  sea-depth  wetted  not" 

{Spia'l.  Salesmen.  Edidit  T.  B.  Pitra,  S.  Romanus,  xvi.  13,  Cant,  dt 
Passione.  120.) 

*  I  John  i,  2.     The  Life  with  the  Father  =  John  i.  I,  14. 
The  Life  manifested  =  John  i.  14  to  end. 


i.  4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHV.  27 

Epistle.  We  have  towards  its  close  a  second  synopsis 
of  the  whole  framework  of  the  Gospel ;  not  now  the 
theory  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  which  in  such  a  life  was 
necessarily  placed  at  its  beginning,  but  of  the  human 
conception  which  pervaded  the  Evangelist's  composition. 
The  second  synopsis,  not  of  the  contents  of  the 
Gospel,  but  of  the  aim  and  conception  which  it  assumed 
in  the  form  into  which  it  was  moulded  by  St.  John, 
is  given,  by  the  Epistle  with  a  fulness  which  omits 
scarcely  a  paragraph  of  the  Gospel.  In  the  space  of 
six  verses  of  the  fifth  chapter  the  word  witness,  as 
verb  or  substantive,  is  repeated  ten  times.^  The  sim- 
plicity of  St.  John's  artless  rhetoric  can  make  no  more 
emphatic  claim  on  our  attention.  The  Gospel  is  indeed 
a  tissue  woven  out  of  many  lines  of  evidence  human 
and  divine.  Compress  its  purpose  into  one  single 
word.  No  doubt  it  is  supremely  the  Gospel  of  the 
Divinity  of  Jesus.  But,  next  to  that,  it  may  best  be 
defined  as  the  Gospel  of  Witness.  These  witnesses 
we  may  take  in  the  order  of  the  Epistle.  St.  John 
feels  that  his  Gospel  is  more  than  a  book ;  it  is  a  past 
made  everlastingly  present.  Such  as  the  great  Life 
was  in  history,  so  it  stands  for  ever.  Jesus  is  "the 
propitiation,  is  righteous,"  "  is  here."  ^  So  the  great 
influences  round  His  Person,  the  manifold  witnesses 
of  His  Life,  stand  witnessing  for  ever  in  the  Gospel 
and  in  the  Church.  What  are  these?  (i)  The  Spirit 
is  ever  witnessing.  So  our  Lord  in  the  Gospel — 
"  when  the  Comforter   is   come.  He  shall  witness  of 


'  The  A.V.  (l  John  v.  6-12)  obscures  this  by  a  too  great  sensitive- 
ness to  monotony.  The  language  of  the  verses  is  varied  unfortunately 
by  "  bear  record  "  (ver.  7),  "  hath  testified  "  (ver.  9),  "  believeth  not 
the  record  "  (ver.  lo),  "this  is  the  record  "  (ver.  II). 

*  I  John  ii.  2-29,  iii.  7,  iv.  3,  v.  20. 


28  THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

Me."*  No  one  can  doubt  that  the  Spirit  is  one 
pre-eminent  subject  of  the  Gospel.  Indeed,  teaching 
about  Him,  above  all  as  the  witness  to  Christ,  occu- 
pies three  unbroken  chapters  in  one  place.^  (2)  The 
water  is  ever  witnessing.  So  long  as  St.  John's 
Gospel  lasts,  and  permeates  the  Church  with  its  influ- 
ence, the  water  must  so  testify.  There  is  scarcely 
a  paragraph  of  it  where  water  is  not;  almost  always 
with  some  relation  to  Christ.  The  witness  of  the 
Baptist^  is,  "  I  baptize  with  water."  The  Jordan  itself 
bears  witness  that  all  its  waters  cannot  give  that  which 
He  bestows  who  is  "  preferred  before  "  John.*  Is  not 
the  water  of  Cana  that  was  made  wine  a  witness  to  His 
glory?*  The  birth  of  "waler  and  of  the  Spirit,"* 
is  another  witness.  And  so  in  the  Gospel  section  after 
section.  The  water  of  Jacob's  well ;  the  water  of  the 
pool  of  Bethesda;  the  waters  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  with 
their  stormy  waves  upon  which  He  walked  ;  the  water 
outpoured  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  with  its  application 
to  the  river  of  living  water ;  the  water  of  Siloam ;  the 
water  poured  into  the  basin,  when  Jesus  washed  'he 
disciples'  feet ;  the  water  which,  with  the  blood,  streamed 
from  the  riven  side  upon  the  cross  ;  the  water  of  the 
sea  of  Galilee  in  its  gentler  mood,  when  Jesus  showed 
Himself  on  its  beach  to  the  seven  ;  as  long  as  all  this 
is  recorded  in  the  Gospel,  as  long  as  the  sacrament 
of  Baptism,  with  its  visible  water  and  its  invisible 
grace  working   in    the  regenerate,  abides   among    the 


'John  XV.  26. 

'John  xiv.,  XV.,  xvi.,  Cf.  vii.  39.     The  witness  of  the  Spirit  io  the 
Apostolic  ministry  v^ill  be  found  John  xx.  22. 
3  John  i.  19. 
♦Johni.  16,  31,33. 

•  John  ii.  9,  iv.  46. 

*  John  iii.  5- 


1. 4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  JOHN.  99 

faithful ; — so  long  is  the  water  ever  witnessing.*  (3) 
The  Blood  is  ever  "  witnessing."  Expiation  once  for 
all ;  purification  continually  from  the  blood  outpoured ; 
drinking  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  Man  by  participation 
in  the  sacrament  of  His  love,  with  the  grace  and 
strength  that  it  gives  day  by  day  to  innumerable  souls  ; 
Ihe  Gospel  concentrated  into  that  great  sacrifice ;  the 
Church's  gifts  of  benediction  summarised  in  the  un- 
speakable Gift ;  this  is  the  unceasing  witness  of  the 
Blood.  (4)  "  The  witness  of  men  "  fills  the  Gospel  from 
beginning  to  end.  The  glorious  series  of  confessions 
wrung  from  willing  and  unwilling  hearts  form  the 
points  of  division  round  which  the  whole  narrative 
may  be  grouped.  Let  us  think  of  all  those  attestations 
which  lie  between  the  Baptist's  precious  testimony 
with  the  sweet  yet  fainter  utterances  of  Andrew,  Philip, 
Nathanael,  and  the  perfect  creed  of  Christendom  con- 
densed into  the  burning  words  of  Thomas — "  my  Lord 
and  my  God."  ^  What  a  range  of  feeling  and  faith  ; 
what  a  variety  of  attestation  coming  from  human  souls, 
sometimes  wrung  from  them  half  unwillingly,  some- 
times uttered  at  crisis-moments  with  an  impulse  that 
cou'd  not  be  resisted  !  The  witness  of  men  in  the 
Gospel,  and  the  assurance  of  one  testimony  that  was  to 
be  given  by  the  Apostles  individually  and  collectively,' 
besides  the  evidences  already  named  includes  the 
following — the  witness  of  Nicodemus,  of  the  Samaritan 
woman,  of  the  Samaritans,  of  the  impotent  man  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda,  of  Simon  Peter,  of  the  officers  of  the 

•  John  iv.  5,  7,  II,  12,  V,  I,  8,  vi.  19,  v»i.  35,  37,  ix.  7,  xiii.  i,  14, 
xix  34,  xxi.  I,  8,  In  the  other  great  Johannic  book  water  is  con- 
stantly mentioned.     Apoc.  vii.  7,  xiv.  7,  xvi.  5,  xxi.  6,  xxii.  I,  xxii.  IJ. 

'John  i.  19,  29,  32,  34,  35,  36,  41,  45,  47,  xix.  27. 

•John  XV.  27. 


30  THE   CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

Jewish  authorities,  of  the  blind  man,  of  Pilate.*  (5) 
The  "witness  of  God"  occupies  also  a  great  position 
in  the  fourth  Gospel.  That  witness  may  be  said  to 
be  given  in  five  forms  :  the  witness  of  the  Father,* 
of  Christ  Himself,^  of  the  Holy  Spirit,*  of  Scripture,^  of 
miracles.'  This  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  human  and 
divine,  finds  its  appropriate  completion  in  another  sub- 
jective witness.'  The  whole  body  of  evidence  passes 
from  the  region  of  the  intellectual  to  that  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  life.  The  evidence  acquires  that  evidentness 
which  is  to  all  our  knowledge  what  the  sap  is  to  the 
tree.  The  faithful  carries  it  in  his  heart ;  it  goes  about 
with  him,  rests  with  him  day  and  night,  is  close  to 
him  in  life  and  death.  He,  the  principle  of  whose 
being  is  belief  ever  going  out  of  itself  and  resting  its 
acts  of  faith  on  the  Son  of  God,  has  all  that  manifold 
witness  in  him.^ 

It  would  be  easy  to  enlarge  upon  the  verbal  connec- 
tion between  the  Epistle  before  us  and  the  Gospel 
which  it  accompanied.     We  might  draw  out  (as  has 


'  John  iii.  2.  The  Baptist's  final  witness  (iii.  25,  33,  iv.  39,  42, 
V.  15,  vi.  68,69,  vii.  46,  xix.  4,6).  Note,  too,  the  accentuation  of 
the  idea  of  wilness  (John  v.  31,  39).  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
R.V.  also  has  sometimes  obscured  this  important  term  by  substituting 
a  different  English  word,  e.g.,  "  the  word  of  the  woman  who  testijied" 
(John  iv.  39). 

"John  viii.  1 8,  xii.  28. 

s  Ibid.  viii.  17,  18. 

<  Ibid.  XV.  26. 

5  Ibid.  V.  39,  46,  xix.  35,  36,  37. 

«  Ibid.  V.  36. 

'  This  sixth  witness  (l  John  v.  10)  exactly  answers  to  John  xx. 

30.  31- 

»  6  viajtvwv  (h  rbv  tloV,  kt\  (v.  lo).    The  construction  is  different  in 

the  words  which  immediately  follow  {bur)  iviartvuv  rw  6ei^),  not  even 

givirg  Him  credence,  net  lelinwg  Him,  much  less  Leikvwg  on  Hint. 


i.  4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN.  31 

often  been  done)  a  list  of  quotations  from  the  Gospel, 
a  whole  common  treasury  of  mystic  language ;  but  we 
prefer  to  leave  an  undivided  impression  upon  the  mind. 
A  document  which  gives  us  a  synopsis  of  the  contents 
of  another  document  at  the  beginning,  and  a  synoptical 
analysis  of  its  predominant  idea  at  the  close,  covering 
the  entire  work,  and  capable  of  absorbing  every  part 
of  it  (except  some  necessary  adjuncts  of  a  rich  and 
crowded  narrative),  has  a  connection  with  it  which  is 
vital  and  integral.  The  Epistle  is  at  once  an  abstract 
of  the  contents  of  the  Gospel,  and  a  key  to  its  purport. 
To  the  Gospel,  at  least  to  it  and  the  Epistle  considered 
as  integrally  one,  the  Apostle  refers  when  he  says : 
"  these  things  write  we  unto  you."  ^ 

St.  John  had  asserted  that  one  end  of  his  declaration 
was  to  make  his  readers  hold  fast  "  fellowship  with  us," 
i.e.,  with  the  Church  as  the  Apostolic  Church ;  aye,  and 

'  The  view  here  advocated  of  the  relation  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John,  and  of  the  brief  but  complete  analytical  synopsis 
in  the  opening  words  of  the  Epistle,  appears  to  us  to  represent  the 
earliest  known  interpretation  as  given  by  the  author  of  the  famous 
fragment  of  the  Muratorian  Canon,  the  first  catalogue  of  the  books 
of  the  N.  T.  (written  between  the  middle  and  close  of  the  second 
century).  After  his  statement  of  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
the  composition  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  and  an  assertion  of  the 
perfect  internal  unity  of  the  Evangelical  narratives,  the  author  of  the 
fragment  proceeds.  "What  wonder  then  if  John  brings  forward  each 
matter,  point  by  point,  with  such  consecutive  order  (tarn  constanter 
singula),  even  in  his  Epistles  saying,  when  he  comes  to  write  in  his 
own  person  (dicens  in  scmetipso),  '  what  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  and  heard  with  our  ears,  and  our  hands  have  handled,  these 
things  have  we  written.'  For  thus,  in  orderly  arrangement  and  con- 
secutive language  he  professes  himself  not  only  an  eye-witness,  but 
a  hearer,  and  yet  further  a  writer  of  the  wonderful  things  of  the 
Lord."  [So  we  understand  the  writer.  "  Sic  enim  non  solum 
visorem,  sed  et  auditorem,  sed  et  scriptorem  omnium  mirabilium 
Domini,  per  ordinem  profitetur."  The  fragment,  with  copious  annota- 
tions, may  be  found  in  Reliquoe  Sacrce,  Routh,  Tom.  i.,  394,  434.] 


3*  THE   CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

that  fellowship  of  ours  is  "  with  the  Father,  and  with 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ;"  "and  these  things,"  he  con- 
tinues (with  special  reference  to  his  Gospel,  as  spoken 
of  in  his  opening  words),  "we  write  unto  you,  that  your 
joy  may  be  fulfilled." 

There  is  as  truly  a  joy  as  a  "  patience  and  comfort 
of  the  Scriptures."  The  Apostle  here  speaks  of  "  your 
joy,"  but  that  implied  his  also. 

All  great  literature,  like  all  else  that  is  beautiful,  is  a 
"joy  for  ever."  To  the  true  student  his  books  are 
this.  But  this  is  so  only  with  a  few  really  great  books. 
We  are  not  speaking  of  works  of  exact  science.  Butler, 
Pascal,  Bacon,  Shakespeare,  Homer,  Scott,  theirs  is  work 
of  which  congenial  spirits  never  grow  quite  tired.  But 
to  be  capable  of  giving  out  joy,  books  must  have  been 
written  with  it.  The  Scotch  poet  tells  us,  that  no  poet 
ever  found  the  Muse,  until  he  had  learned  to  walk  beside 
the  brook,  and  "no  think  long."  That  which  is  not 
thought  over  with  pleasure  ;  that  which,  as  it  gradually 
rises  before  the  author  in  its  unity,  does  not  fill  him 
with  delight ;  will  never  permanently  give  pleasure  to 
readers.  He  must  know  joy  before  he  can  say — "  these 
things  write  we  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may  be  full." 

The  book  that  is  to  give  joy  must  be  a  part  of  a 
man's  self.  That  is  just  what  most  books  are  not. 
They  are  laborious,  diligent,  useful  perhaps ;  they 
are  not  interesting  or  delightful.  How  touching  it 
is,  when  the  poor  old  stiff  hand  must  write,  and  the 
overworked  brain  think,  for  bread !  Is  there  any- 
thing so  pathetic  in  Uterature  as  Scott  setting  his  back 
bravely  to  the  wall,  and  forcing  from  his  imagination 
the  reluctant  creations  which  used  to  issue  with  such 
splendid  profusion  from  its  haunted  chambers  ? 

Of  the  conditions  under  which  an  inspired  writer 


i.4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN.  33 

pursued  his  labours  we  know  but  little.  But  some 
conditions  are  apparent  in  the  books  of  St.  John  with 
which  we  are  now  concerned.  The  fourth  Gospel 
is  a  book  written  without  arriere  pense'e,  without 
literary  conceit,  without  the  parai^'sing  dread  of  criti- 
cism. What  verdict  the  polished  society  of  Ephesus 
would  pronounce  ;  what  sneers  would  circulate  .in 
philosophic  quarters ;  what  the  numerous  heretics 
would  murmur  in  their  conventicles ;  what  critics 
within  the  Church  might  venture  to  whisper,  missing 
perhaps  favourite  thoughts  and  catch-words;^  St,  John 
cared  no  more  than  if  he  were  dead.  He  communed 
with  the  memories  of  the  past ;  he  listened  for  the 
music  of  the  Voice  which  had  been  the  teacher  of  his 
life.  To  be  faithful  to  these  memories,  to  recall  these 
words,  to  be  true  to  Jesus,  was  his  one  aim.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  the  Gospel  was  written  with  a  full 
delight.  No  one  who  is  capable  of  feeling,  ever  has 
doubted  that  it  was  written  as  if  with  "  a  feather 
dropped  from  an  angel's  wing;"  that  without  aiming 
at  anything  but  truth,  it  attains  in  parts  at  least  a  trans- 
cendent beauty.  At  the  close  of  the  prooemium,  after 
the  completest  theological  furmiila  which  the  Church 
has  ever  possessed — the  still,  even  pressure  of  a  tide 
of  thought — we  have  a  parenthetic  sentence,  like  the 
splendid  unexpected  rush  and  swell  of  a  sudden  wave 
("we  beheld  the  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  Only- Be- 
gotten of  the  Father ") ;  then  after  the   parenthesis  a 

'  For  whatever  reason,  four  classical  terms  (if  we  may  so  call 
them)  of  the  Christian  religion  are  excluded,  or  nearly  excluded,  from 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  and  from  its  companion  document.  Church, 
Gospel,  repentance,  occur  nowhere.  Grace  only  once  (John  i.  14;  see, 
however,  2  John  3;  Apoc.  i.  4;  xxii.  21),  failh  as  a  substantive  only 
once.     (l  John  v.  4,  but  in  Apoc.  ii.  13-19;  xiii.  10;  xiv.  123.) 


34  THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

soft  and  murmuring  fall  of  the  whole  great  tide  ("  full 
of  grace  and  truth  ").  Can  we  suppose  that  the  Apostle 
hung  over  his  sentence  with  literary  zest  ?  The 
number  of  writers  is  small  who  can  give  us  an  ever- 
lasting truth  by  a  single  word,  a  single  pencil  touch  ; 
who,  having  their  mind  loaded  with  thought,  are  wise 
enough  to  keep  that  strong  and  eloquent  silence  which 
is  the  prerogative  only  of  the  highest  genius.  St. 
John  gives  us  one  of  these  everlasting  pictures,  of 
these  inexhaustible  symbols,  in  three  little  words — 
"  He  then  having  received  the  sop,  went  immediately 
out,  and  it  was  nighty  ^  Do  we  suppose  that  he  ad- 
mired the  perfect  effect  of  that  powerful  self-restraint  ? 
Just  before  the  crucifixion  he  writes — "Then  came  Jesus 
forth,  wearing  the  crown  of  thorns,  and  the  purple  robe, 
and  Pilate  saith  unto  them,  Behold  the  Man!"^  The 
pathos,  the  majesty,  the  royalty  of  sorrow,  the  admira- 
tion and  pity  of  Pilate,  have  been  for  centuries  the 
inspiration  of  Christian  art.  Did  St.  John  congratulate 
himself  upon  the  image  of  sorrow  and  of  beauty  which 
stands  for  ever  in  these  lines  ?  With  St.  John  as  a 
wiiter  it  is  as  with  St.  John  delineated  in  the  fresco 
at  Padua  by  the  genius  of  Giotto.  The  form  of  the 
ascending  saint  is  made  visible  through  a  reticulation 
of  rays  of  light  in  colours  as  splendid  as  ever  came 
from  mortal  pencil ;  but  the  rays  issue  entirely  from 
the  Saviour,  whose  face  and  form  are  full  before  him. 

The  feeling  of  the  Church  has  always  been  that  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John  was  a  solemn  work  of  faith  and 
prayer.  The  oldest  extant  fragment  upon  the  canon 
of  the  New  Testament  tells  us  that  the  Gospel  was 
undertaken  after  earnest  invitations  from  the  brethren 
and  the  bishops,  with  solemn  united  fasting ;  not  with- 
'  ^v  5i  n5|.     John  xiii.  30.  ^  John  xix.  5. 


i.  4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  JOHN.  35 

out  special  revelation  to  Andrew  the  Apostle  that 
John  was  to  do  the  work.^  A  later  and  much  less 
important  document  connected  in  its  origin  with  Patmos 
embodies  one  beautiful  legend  about  the  composition 
of  the  Gospel.  It  tells  how  the  Apostle  was  about  to 
leave  Patmos  for  Ephesus ;  how  the  Christians  of  the 
island  besought  him  to  leave  in  writing  an  account  of 
the  Incarnation,  and  mysterious  life  of  the  Son  of  God ; 
how  St.  John  and  his  chosen  friends  went  forth  from 
the  haunts  of  men  about  a  mile,  and  halted  in  a  quiet 
spot  called  the  gorge  of  Rest,  ^  and  then  ascended  the 
mountain  which  overhung  it.  There  they  remained 
three  days.  "  Then,"  writes  Prochorus,  "  he  ordered 
me  to  go  down  to  the  town  for  paper  and  ink.  And 
after  two  days  I  found  him  standing  rapt  in  prayer. 
Said  he  to  me — *  take  the  ink  and  paper,  and  stand  on 
my  right  hand.'  And  I  did  so.  And  there  was  a  great 
lightning  and  thunder,  so  that  the  mountain  shook. 
And  I  fell  on  the  ground  as  if  dead.  Whereupon  John 
stretched  forth  his  hand  and  took  hold  of  me,  and 
said — '  stand  up  at  this  spot  at  my  right  hand.'  After 
which  he  prayed  again,  and  after  his  prayer  said  unto 
me — 'son  Prochorus,  what  thou  hearest  from  my  mouth, 
write  upon  the  sheets.'  And  having  opened  his  mouth 
as  he  was  standing  praying,  and  looking  up  to  heaven, 
he  began  to  say — '  in  the  beginning  was  the  Word, 
and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.' 
And  so  following  on,  he  spake  in  order,  standing  as 
he  was,  and  I  wrote  sitting."^ 

'  Canon.  Murator.  (apud  Routh.,  Reliq.  Sacrce,  Tom,  i.,  394). 

'  iv  Tbiriii  ijffvxv  XcfO/j-fyij)  Karairaijaii. 

*  This  passage  is  translated  from  the  Greek  text  of  the  manuscript 
of  Patmos,  attributed  to  Prochorus,  as  given  by  M.  Guenn.  {pescrip^ 
Hon  de  flsle  de  Patmos,  pp.  25-29.) 


36  THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 

True  instinct  which  tells  us  that  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John  was  the  fruit  of  prayer  as  well  as  of  memory ; 
that  it  was  thought  out  in  some  valley  of  rest,  some 
hush  among  the  hills  ;  that  it  came  from  a  solemn  joy 
which  it  breathed  forth  upon  others  !  "  These  things 
write  I  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may  be  fulfilled." 
Generation  after  generation  it  has  been  so.  In  the 
numbers  numberless  of  the  Redeemed,  there  can  be 
very  few  who  have  not  been  brightened  by  the  joy  of 
that  book.  Still,  at  one  funeral  after  another,  hearts 
are  soothed  by  the  word  in  it  which  says — "  I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life."  Still  the  sorrowful  and 
the  dying  ask  to  hear  again  and  again — "  let  not  your 
heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid."  A  brave 
young  officer  sent  to  the  war  in  Africa,  from  a  regiment 
at  home,  where  he  had  caused  grief  by  his  extravagance, 
penitent,  and  dying  in  his  tent,  during  the  fatal  day 
of  Isandula,  scrawled  in  pencil — "dying,  dear  father 
and  mother — happy — for  Jesus  says,  *  He  that  cometh 
to  Me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.' "  Our  English 
Communion  Office,  with  its  divine  beauty,  is  a  texture 
shot  through  and  through  with  golden  threads  from 
the  discourse  at  Capernaum.  Still  are  the  disciples 
glad  when  they  see  the  Lord  in  that  record.  It  is  the 
book  of  the  Church's  smiles  ;  it  is  the  gladness  of  the 
saints ;  it  is  the  purest  fountain  of  joy  in  all  the  litera- 
ture of  earth. 


N  GTE     A. 

The  thorough  connection  of  the  Epistle  with  the  Gospel  may 
be  made  more  clear  by  the  following  tabulated  analysis  : — 

The  (A)  beginnmg  and  (B)  the  close  of  the  Epistle  contain 
iwo  abstracts,  longer  and  shorter,  of  the  contents  and  bearing 
of  the  Gospel. 


i.  4.]  WITH  THE   GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN.  37 

A. 

i. — I  John  i.  I. 

1.  "That  which  was  from  the  beginning — concerning  the 
Word  of  Life  "  =  John  i.  1-15. 

2.  [a)  "Which  we  have  /z^(2:r^"=John  i.  38,  39,  42,  47, 
50,  51,  ii.  4,  7,  8,  16,  19,  iii.  3,  22,  iv.  7,  39,  48,  50,  v.  6,  47, 
vi.  5,  70,  vii.  6,  39,  viii.  7,  58,  ix.  3,  41,  x.  i,  39,  xi.  4,  45, 
xii.  7,  50,  xiii.  6,  38,  xiv.,  xvii  ,  xviii.  14,  2)]f  ^i^*  ^^»  ^6,  27, 
28,  30,  XX,  15,  16,  17,  19,  21,  2^,  2'j,  29,  xxi.  5,  6,  ID,  12,  22. 

{b)  "Which  we  have  seen  with  oitr  eyes"  =]ohn  i.  29,  36, 
39,  ii.  II,  vi.  2,  14,  19,  ix.,  xi.  44,  xiii.  4,  5,  xvii.  i,  xviii.  6, 
xix.  5,  17,  18,  34,  38,  XX.  5,  14,  20,  25,  29,  xxi,  I,  14. 

{c)  "  Which  we  gazed  upon  "  =  z'^/i^. 

(d)  "Which  we  have  handled"  =  John  xx,  27  (refers  also 
to  a  synoptical  Gospel,  Luke  xxiv,  39,  40). 

«. — I  John  i.  2. 

1.  "  The  Life  was  manifested  "  =  John  i.  29 — xxi.  25. 

2.  (a)  "  We  have  seen  "  =(A  z'.  2  (<5) ). 

{b)  "And  bear  witness  "=  John  i.  7,  19,  ^y,  iii.  2,  27,  33, 
iv.  39,  vi,  69,  XX,  28,  30,  31,  xxi.  24. 

(t)  "  And  declare  unto  you  "  =  John  _passim. 
"The  Life,  the  Eternal  Life,  which 

K  "Was  with  the  Father  "=  John  i.  1-4. 

3  "  And  was  manifested  unto  us  "  =  John  passim, 

B. 

/. — I  John  V.  6-10. 
Summary  of  the  Gospel  as  a  Gospel  of  witness. 

1.  "The  Spirit  beareth  witness"  -John  i.  32,  xiv.,  xv.,  xx.  22. 

2.  "The  water  beareth  witness "  =  John  i.  28,  ii.  9,  iii.  5,  iv. 
13,  14,  v.  I,  9,  vi.  19,  vii.  11,  ix.  7,  xiii.  5,  xix.  34,  xxi.  i. 

3.  "The  blood  beareth  witness  "=John  vi.  53,  54,  55,  56, 
xix.  34. 

4.  "  The  witness  of  men  "  =  (A.  ii.  i  {b) )  Also  John  i.  45,  49, 
iii.  2,  iv.  39,  vii.  46,  xii.  12,  13,  17,  19,  20,  21,  xviii.  38,  xix.  35, 
XX.  28. 


38  THE  EPISTLES  OF  ST,  JOim. 

5.  "  The  witness  of  God  "  =- 

[a)  Scripture  =  John  i.  45,  v.  39,  46,  xix.  36,  37. 

[b)  Christ's  own  =  John  viii.  17,  18,  46,  xv.  30,  xviii.  37. 

[c)  His  Father's  =  John  v.  y],  viii.  18,  xii.  28. 
{d)  His  works = John  v,  36,  x.  25,  xv.  24. 

it. — I  John  V.  20, 

We  know  {i.e.,  by  the  Gospel)  that — 

1.  "  The  Son  of  God  is  come"  {rJKtv),  "has  come  and  is 
here." 

Note. — ^riX3  =  ^K&),  LXX.  Psalm  xl.  7.  "Vem'o  symbolum 
quasi  Domini  Jesu  fuit."  (Bengel  on  Heb.  x.  7),  the  /c/i  Dien 
of  the  Son  of  the  Father — eyw  yap  Ik  rov  6fov  e^^jXdov  Kai  ^koj. 
"  I  came  forth  from  God,  and  am  here"  (John  viii.  4)  =  John 
i.  29 — xxi.  23  (John  xiv.  18,  21,  2^,  xvi.  16,  22,  form  part  of 
the  thought  "  is  here"). 

2.  "And  hath  given  us  an  understanding "= gift  of  the 
Spirit,  John  xiv.,  xv.,  xvi.  (especially  13,  16). 

3.  "  This  is  the  very  God  and  eternal  Life  "= John  i.  i,  4. 
The  whole  Gospel  of  St.  John  brings  out  these  primary 

principles  of  the  Faith, — 

That  the  Son  of  God  has  come.  That  He  is  now  and  ever 
present  with  His  people.  That  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  them  a 
new  faculty  of  spiritual  diecernment.  That  Christ  is  the  very 
God  and  the  Life  of  men. 


DISCOURSE   III. 

THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE 
OF  ST.  JOHN. 

*'Dum  Magistri  super  pectus 
Fontem  haurit  intellectus 

Et  doctrinae  flumina, 
Fiunt,  ipso  situ  loci, 
Verbo  fides,  auris  voci, 

Meus  Deo  contermina. 

•Unde  mentis  per  excessus, 
Carnis,  sensus  super  gressu3^ 

Errorumqtie  ntibila, 
Contra  veri  solis  lumen 
Visum  cordis  et  acumen 
Figit  velut  aquila." 

Adam  of  St.   Victor,  Seq.  xxxii. 


"Every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh 
is  of  God.  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  not  [that]  Jesus  Christ  [is 
come  in  the  flesh]  is  not  of  God." — i  John  iv.  2,  3. 

A  DISCUSSION  (however  far  from  technical  com- 
pleteness) of  the  polemical  element  in  St.  John's 
Epistle,  probably  seems  likely  to  be  destitute  of 
interest  or  of  instruction,  except  to  ecclesiastical  or 
philosophical  antiquarians.  Those  who  believe  the 
Epistle  to  be  a  divine  book  must,  however,  take  a 
different  view  of  the  matter.  St.  John  was  not  merely 
dealing  with  forms  of  human  error  which  were  local 
and  fortuitous.  In  refuting  them  he  was  enunciating 
principles   of    universal   import,    of  almost    illimitable 


40  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

application.  Let  us  pass  by  those  obscure  sects,  those 
subtle  curiosities  of  error,  which  the  diligence  of  minute 
research  has  excavated  from  the  masses  of  erudition 
under  which  they  have  been  buried  ;  which  theologians, 
like  other  antiquarians,  have  sometimes  labelled  with 
names  at  once  uncouth  and  imaginative.  Let  us  fix  our 
attention  upon  such  broad  and  well-defined  features  of 
heresy  as  credible  witnesses  have  indelibly  fixed  upon 
the  contemporaneous  heretical  thought  of  Asia  Minor; 
and  we  shall  see  not  only  a  great  precision  in  St.  John's 
words,  but  a  radiant  image  of  truth,  which  is  equally 
adapted  to  enlighten  us  in  the  peculiar  dangers  of  our  age. 
Controversy  is  the  condition  under  which  all  truth 
mu£t  be  held,  which  is  not  in  necessary  subject-matter — 
which  is  not  either  mathematical  or  physical.  In  the 
case  of  the  second,  controversy  is  active,  until  the  fact 
of  the  physical  law  is  established  beyond  the  possibility 
of  rational  discussion ;  until  self-consistent  thought 
can  only  think  upon  the  postulate  of  its  admission. 
Now  in  these  departments  all  the  argument  is  on  one 
side.  We  are  not  in  a  state  of  suspended  speculation, 
leaning  neither  to  affirmation  nor  denial,  which  is  doubt. 
We  are  not  in  the  position  of  inclining  either  to  one  side 
or  the  other,  by  an  almost  impalpable  overplus  of  evi- 
dence, which  is  suspicion;  or  by  those  additions  to  this 
slender  stock,  which  convert  suspicion  into  opinion.  We 
are  not  merely  yielding  a  strong  adhesion  to  one  side, 
while  we  must  yet  admit,  to  ourselves  at  least,  that  our 
knowledge  is  not  perfect,  nor  absolutely  manifest — which 
is  the  mental  and  moral  position  of  belief.  In  necessary 
subject-matter,  we  know  and  see  with  that  perfect  in- 
tellectual vision  for  which  controversy  is  impossible.^ 

•  •'  Proprium  est  credentis  ut  cum  assensu  cogitet."     "  The  intellect 
of  him  who  believes  assents  to  the  thing  believed,  not  because  he 


iv.  2, 3.]  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOHN.  4» 

.  The  region  of  belief  must  therefore,  in  our  present 
condition,  be  a  region  from  which  controversy  cannot 
be  excluded. 

Religious  controversialists  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes,  for  each  of  which  we  may  find  an  emblem  in 
the  animal  creation.  The  first  are  the  nuisances,  at 
times  the  numerous  nuisances,  of  Churches.  These 
controversialists  delight  in  showing  that  the  convictions 
of  persons  whom  they  happen  to  dislike,  can,  more 
or  less  plausibly,  be  pressed  to  unpopular  conclusions. 
They  are  incessant  fault-finders.  Some  of  them,  if  they 
had  an  opportunity,  might  delight  in  finding  the  sun 
guilty  in  his  daily  worship  of  the  many-coloured 
ritualism  of  the  western  clouds.  Controversialists  of 
this  class,  if  minute  are  venomous,  and  capable  of 
inflicting  a  degree  of  pain  quite  out  of  proportion  to 
their  strength.  Their  emblem  may  be  found  some- 
where in  the  range  of  "every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
upon  the  earth."  The  second  class  of  controversialists 
is  of  a  much  higher  nature.  Their  emblem  is  the  hawk 
with  his  bright  eye,  with  the  forward  throw  of  his 
pinions,  his  rushing  flight  along  the  woodland  skirt, 
his  unerring  stroke.  Such  hawks  of  the  Churches, 
whose  delight  is  in  pouncing  upon  fallacies,  fulfil  an 
important  function.  They  rid  us  of  tribes  of  mis- 
chievous winged  errors.  The  third  class  of  contro- 
versialists is  that  which  embraces  St.  John  supremely — 
such  minds  also  as  Augustine's  in  his  loftiest  and  most 

sees  that  thing  either  in  itself  or  by  logical  reference  to  first  self- 
evident  principles ;  but  because  it  is  so  far  convinced  by  Divine 
authority  as  to  assent  to  things  which. it  does  not  see,  and  on  account 
of  the  dominance  of  the  will  in  setting  the  intellect  in  motion."  This 
sentence  is  taken  from  a  passage  of  Aquinas  which  appears  to  be  oi 
great  and  permanent  Value.  Summa  Theolog.  2*,  2*cfuaest.  i.  art.  4. 
quaest.  v.  art.  2. 


42  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

inspired  moments,  such  as  those  which  have  endowed 
the  Church  with  the  Nicene  Creed.  Of  such  the  eagle 
is  the*emblem.  Over  the  grosser  atmosphere  of  earthly 
anger  or  imperfect  motives,  over  the  clouds  of  error, 
poised  in  the  light  of  the  True  Sun,  with  the  eagle's 
upward  wing  and  the  eagle's  sunward  eye,  St.  John 
looks  upon  the  truth.  He  is  indeed  the  eagle  of  the 
four  Evangelists,  the  eagle  of  God,  If  the  eagle  could 
speak  with  our  language,  his  style  would  have  some- 
thing of  the  purity  of  the  sky  and  of  the  brightness 
of  the  light.  He  would  warn  his  nestlings  against 
losing  their  way  in  the  banks  of  clouds  that  lie  below 
him  so  far.  At  times  he  might  show  that  there  is  a 
danger  or  an  error  whose  position  he  might  indicate 
by  the  sweep  of  his  wing,  or  by  descending  for  a 
moment  to  strike. 

There  are  then  polemics  in  the  Epistle  and  in  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John.  But  we  refuse  to  hunt  down  some 
obscure  heresy  in  every  sentence.  It  will  be  enough 
to  indicate  the  master  heresy  of  Asia  Minor,  to  which 
St.  John  undoubtedly  refers,  with  its  intellectual  and 
moral  perils.  In  so  doing,  we  shall  find  the  very  truth 
which  our  own  generation  especially  needs. 

The  prophetic  words  addressed  by  St.  Paul  to  the 
Church  of  Ephesus  thirty  years  before  the  date  of 
this  Epistle  had  found  only  too  complete  a  fulfilment. 
"  From  among  their  own  selves,"  at  Ephesus  in  parti- 
cular, through  the  Churches  of  Asia  Minor  in  general, 
men  had  arisen  "  speaking  perverse  things,  to  draw 
away  the  disciples  after  them."  *  The  prediction  began 
to  justify  itself  when  Timothy  was  Bishop  of  Ephesus 
only  five  or  six  years  later.     A  few  significant  words 

•  Acts  XX.  30. 


V.  2, 3-1  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  ST  JOHN.  43 

in  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  let  us  see  the  heretical 
influences  that  were  at  work.  St.  Paul  speaks  with 
the  solemnity  of  a  closing  charge  when  he  warns 
Timothy  against  what  were  at  once^  "profane  bab- 
blings," and  "  antitheses  of  the  Gnosis  which  is  falsely 
so  called."  In  an  earlier  portion  of  the  same  Epistle 
the  young  Bishop  is  exhorted  to  charge  certain  men 
not  to  teach  a  "  different  doctrine,"  neither  to  give 
"heed  to  myths  and  genealogies,"  out  of  whose  endless 
mazes  no  intellect  entangled  in  them  can  ever  find 
its  way.  ^  Those  commentators  put  us  on  a  false  scent 
who  would  have  us  look  after  Judaizing  error,  Jewish 
"stemmata."  The  reference  is  not  to  Judaistic  ritualism, 
but  to  semi-Pagan  philosophical  speculation.  The 
"  genealogies "  are  systems  of  divine  potencies  which 
the  Gnostics  (and  probably  some  Jewish  Rabbis  of 
Gnosticising  tendency)  called  "  aeons,"  ^  and  so  the 
earliest  Christian  writers  understood  the  word. 

Now  without  entering  into  the  details  of  Gnosticism, 
this  may  be  said  of  its  general  method  and  purpose. 
It  aspired  at  once  to  accept  and  to  transform  the 
Christian  creed ;  to  elevate  its  faith  into  a  philosophy, 
a  knowledge — and  then  to  make  this  knowledge  cashier 
and  supersede  faith,  love,  holiness,  redemption  itself. 

This  system  was  strangely  eclectic,  and  amalgamated 
certain  elements  not  only  of  Greek  and  Egyptian,  but 
of  Persian  and   Indian   Pantheistic   thought.      It  was 

'  raj  /Se^^Xouj  Kevocpuvlas,  Kal  avriOiaa^  ttjs  ipev^tavifiov  yvwffeus. 
I  Tim.  vi.  20.  The  "  antitheses  "  may  either  touch  with  slight  sarcasm 
upon  pompous  pretensions  to  scientific  logical  method;  or  may  denote 
the  really  self-contradictorj'  character  of  these  elaborate  compositions; 
or  again,  their  polemical  opposition  to  the  Christian  creed. 

2  fivQoLi  Kal  yeveaXoyiais  a.irep6.vT0L%.     I  Tim.  i.  3,  4. 

'  Ireiiseus  quotas  I  Tim.  i.  4,  and  interprets  it  of  the  Gnostic 
•  aeons.'    Adv.  Hceres.,  i.  Prooem. 


44  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

infected  throughout  with  dualism  and  doketism. 
Dualism  held  that  all  good  and  evil  in  the  universe 
proceeded  from  two  first  principles,  good  and  evil. 
Matter  was  the  power  of  evil  whose  home  is  in  the 
region  of  darkness.  Minds  which  started  from  this 
fundamental  view  could  only  accept  the  Incarnation 
provisionally  and  with  reserve,  and  must  at  once  pro- 
ceed to  explain  it  away.  "  The  Word  was  niade  flesh;" 
but  the  Word  of  God,  the  True  Light,  could  not  be 
personally  united  to  an  actual  material  system  called  a 
human  body,  plunged  in  the  world  of  matter,  darkened 
and  contaminated  by  its  immersion.  The  human  flesh 
in  which  Jesus  appeared  to  be  seen  was  fictitious. 
Redemption  was  a  drama  with  a  shadow  for  its  hero. 
The  phantom  of  a  redeemer  was  nailed  to  the  phantom 
of  a  cross.  Philosophical  dualism  logically  became 
theological  doketism.  Doketism  logically  evaporated 
dogmas,  sacraments,  duties,  redemption.^ 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  doketism  has  been  a 
mere  temporary  and  local  aberration  of  the  human 
intellect;  a  metaphysical  curiosity,  with  no  real  roots 
in  human  nature.  If  so,  its  refutation  is  an  obsolete 
piece  of  an  obsolete  controversy ;  and  the  Epistle  in 
some  of  its  most  vital  portions  is  a  dead  letter. 

'  Few  phenomena  of  criticism  are  more  unaccountable  than  the 
desire  to  evade  any  acknowledgment  of  the  historical  existence  of 
these  singular  heresies.  Not  long  after  St.  John's  death,  Polycarp,  in 
writing  to  the  Philippians,  quotes  I  John  iv.  3,  and  proceeds  to  show 
that  doketism  had  consummated  its  work  down  to  the  last  fibres  o£ 
the  root  of  the  creed,  by  two  negations — no  resurrection  of  the  body, 
no  judgment.  (Polycarp,  Epist.  ad  Philip.,  vii.)  Ignatius  twice  deals 
with  the  Doketse  at  length.  To  the  Trallians  he  delivers  what  may 
be  called  an  antidoketic  creed,  concluding  in  the  tone  of  one  who  was 
wounded  by  what  he  was  daily  hearing.  "  Be  deaf  then  when  any 
man  speaks  unto  you  without  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  of  Mary,  who  truly 
was  born,  truly  suflfered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  truly  was  crucified  and 


iv.  2, 3.]  FIJ^ST  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOHN:  45 

Now  of  course  literal  doketism  is  past  and  gone, 
dead  and  buried.  The  progress  of  the  human  mind, 
the  slow  and  resistless  influence  of  the  logic  of  common 
sense,  the  wholesome  influence  of  the  sciences  of 
observation  in  correcting  visionary  metaphysics,  have 
swept  away  aeons,  emanations,  dualism,  ^  and  the  rest. 
But  a  subtler,  and  to  modern  minds  infinitely  more 
attractive,  doketism  is  round  us,  and  accepted,  as  far 
as  words  go,  with  a  passionate  enthusiasm. 

What  is  this  doketism  ? 

Let  us  refer  to  the  history  and  to  the  language  of  a 
mind  of  singular  subtlety  and  power. 

In  George  Eliot's  early  career  she  was  induced  to 
prepare  for  the  press  a  translation  ofStrauss's  mythical 
explanation  of  the  Life  of  Jesus.  It  is  no  disrespect  to 
so  great  a  memory  to  say,  that  at  that  period  of  her 
career,  at  least,  Miss  Evans  must  have  been  unequal 
to  grapple  with  such  a  work,  if  she  desired  to  do  so 
from  a  Christian  point  of  view.  She  had  not  apparently 
studied  the  history  or  the  structure  of  the  Gospels. 
"What  she  knew  of  their  meaning  she  had  imbibed  from 
an  antiquated  and  unscientific  school  of  theologians. 
The  faith  of  a  sciolist  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  its  life 


died,  truly  also  was  raised  from  the  dead.  But  if  some  who  are  un- 
believing say  that  He  suffered  apparently,  as  if  in  vision,  being 
visionary  themselves,  why  am  I  a  prisoner  ?  why  do  I  choose  to  fight 
with  wild  beasts  ?"  (Ignat.,  Ep.  ad  Trail.,  iv.  x.)  The  play  upon  the 
name  dolc^tee  cannot  be  mistaken  (X^yovacv  t6  doKelv  irtirovOivai  avrbv, 
avrol  6vTt\  rb  SoKelv).  Ignatius  writes  to  another  Church — "What 
profited  it  me  if  one  praiseth  me  but  blasphemeth  my  Lord,  not 
confessing  that  He  bears  true  human  flesh.  They  abstain  from 
Eucharist  and  prayer,  because  they  confess  not  that  the  Eucharist  is 
flesh  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."     (Ep.  ad  Smyrn,,  v.  vi.  vii.) 

1  The  elder  Mr.  Mill,  however,  appears  to  have  seriously  leaned  to 
this  as  ji.  conceivable,  solution  of  the  contradictory  phenomena  of 
existence. 


4«  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

with  the  fatal  strength  of  a  critical  giant  instructed  in 
the  negative  lore  of  all  ages,  and  sharpened  by  hatred 
of  the  Christian  religion,  met  with  the  result  which  was 
to  be  expected.  Her  faith  expired,  not  without  some 
painful  throes.  She  fell  a  victim  to  the  fallacy  of 
youthful  conceit — /  cannot  answer  this  or  that  objec- 
tion, therefore  it  is  unanswerable.  She  wrote  at  first 
that  she  was  "  Strauss-sick."  It  made  her  ill  to  dissect 
the  beautiful  story  of  the  crucifixion.  She  took  to  her- 
self a  consolation  singular  in  the  circumstances.  The 
sight  of  an  ivory  crucifix,  and  of  a  pathetic  picture  of 
the  Passion,  made  her  capable  of  enduring  the  first 
shock  of  the  loss  which  her  heart  had  sustained.  That 
is,  she  found  comfort  in  looking  at  tangible  reminders 
of  a  scene  which  had  ceased  to  be  an  historical  reality, 
of  a  sufferer  who  had  faded  from  a  living  Redeemer 
into  the  spectre  of  a  visionary  past.  After  a  time, 
however,  she  feels  able  to  propose  to  herself  and  others 
"a  new  starting  point.  We  can  never  have  a  satis- 
factory basis  for  the  history  of  the  man  Jesus,  but  that 
negation  does  not  affect  the  Idea  of  the  Christ,  either 
in  its  historical  influence,  or  its  great  symbolic  mean- 
ings." *  Yes !  a  Christ  who  has  no  history,  of  whom 
we  do  not  possess  one  undoubted  word,  of  whom  we 
know,  and  can  know,  nothing ;  who  has  no  flesh  of  fact, 
no  blood  of  life ;  an  idea,  not  a  man ;  this  is  the  Christ 
of  modern  doketism.  The  method  of  this  widely 
diffused  school  is  to  separate  the  sentiments  of  admira- 
tion which  the  history  inspires  from  the  history  itself; 
to  sever  the  ideas  of  the  faith  from  the  facts  of  the 
faith,  and  then  to  present  the  ideas  thus  surviving  the 
dissolvents  of  criticism,  as  at  once  the  refutation  of 

the  facts  and  the  substitute  for  them. 

• 

'  Life  vol.  ii.,  359,  3O0. 


iv.  2, 3.]  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOHN.  47 

This  may  be  pretty  writing,  though  false  and 
illogical  writing  is  rarely  even  that;  but  a  little 
consideration  will  show  that  this  new  starting  point 
is  not  even  a  plausible  substitute  for  the  old  belief. 

(i)  We  question  simple  believers  in  the  first  instance. 
We  ask  them  what  is  the  great  religious  power  in 
Christianity  for  themselves,  and  for  others  like-minded  ? 
What  makes  people  pure,  good,  self-denying,  nurses  of 
the  sick,  missionaries  to  the  heathen  ?  They  will  tell 
us  that  the  power  lies,  not  in  any  doketic  idea  of  a 
Christ-life  which  was  never  lived,  but  in  "  the  conviction 
that  that  idea  was  really  and  perfectly  incarnated  in  an 
actual  career,"  ^  of  which  we  have  a  record  literally  and 
absolutely  true  in  all  essential  particulars.  When  we 
turn  to  the  past  of  the  Church,  we  find  that  as  it  is 
with  these  persons,  so  it  has  ever  been  with  the  saints. 
For  instance,  we  hear  St.  Paul  speaking  of  his  whole 
life.  He  tells  us  that  "  whether  we  went  out  of  our- 
selves it  was  unto  God,  or  whether  we  be  sober,  it  is 
for  you  ; "  that  is  to  say,  such  a  life  has  two  aspects, 
one  God-ward,  one  man-ward.  Its  God-ward  aspect 
is  a  noble  insanity,  its  man-ward  aspect  a  noble 
sanity;,  the  first  with  its  beautiful  enthusiasm,  the 
second  with  its  saving  common  sense.  What  is  the 
source  of  this  ?  "  For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth 
us," — forces  the  whole  stream  of  Hfe  to  flow  between 
these  two  banks  without  the  deviations  of  selfishness — 
"  because  we  thus  judge,  that  He  died  for  all,  that  they 
which  live  should  no  longer  live  unto  themselves,  but 
to  Him  who  for  their  sakes  died  and  rose  again."  ^  It 
was  the  real  unselfish  life  of  a  real  unselfish  Man  which 

'  Much  use  has  here  been  made  of  a  truly  remarkable  aiticle  in  the 
Spectator,  Jan.  31st,  1885. 
*  2  Cor.  V.  13-15. 


48  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

made  such  a  life  as  that  of  St.  Paul  a  possibility.  Or 
we  may  think  of  the  first  beginning  of  St.  John's  love 
for  our  Lord.  When  he  turned  to  the  past,  he 
remembered  one  bright  day  about  ten  in  the  morning, 
when  the  real  Jesus  turned  to  him  and  to  another  with 
a  real  look,  and  said  with  a  human  voice,  "  what  seek 
ye  ?  "  and  then — "  come,  and  ye  shall  see."  ^  It  was 
the  real  living  love  that  won  the  only  kind  of  love 
which  could  enable  the  old  man  to  write  as  he  did 
in  this  Epistle  so  many  years  afterwards — "we  love 
because  He  first  loved  us."  ^ 

(2)  We  address  ourselves  next  to  those  who  look 
at  Christ  simply  as  an  ideal.  We  venture  to  put  to 
them  a  definite  question.  You  believe  that  there  is  no 
solid  basis  for  the  history  of  the  man  Jesus ;  that  His 
life  as  an  historical  reality  is  lost  in  a  dazzling  mist 
of  legend  and  adoration.  Has  the  idea  of  a  Christ, 
divorced  from  all  accompaniment  of  authentic  fact, 
unfixed  in  a  definite  historical  form,  uncontinued  in  an 
abiding  existence,  been  operative  or  inoperative  for 
yourselves  ?  Has  it  been  a  practical  power  and  motive, 
or  an  occasional  and  evanescent  sentiment  ?  There 
can  be  no  doubt  about  the  answer.  It  is  not  a  make- 
belief  but  a  belief  which  gives  purity  and  power.  It 
is  not  an  ideal  of  Jesus  but  the  blood  of  Jesus  which 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin. 

There  are  other  lessons  of  abiding  practical  importance 
to  be  drawn  from  the  polemical  elements  in  St.  John's 
Epistle.  These,  however,  we  can  only  biiefly  indicate 
because  we  wish  to  leave  an  undivided  impression  of 
that  which  seems  to  be  St.  John's  chief  object  co«- 
troversially.      There  were  Gnostics  in  Asia  Minor  for 

•  John  i.  43.  I  John  iv    IJJi 


iv.  2, 3.]  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOII.V.  49 

whom  the  mere  knowledge  of  certain  supposed  spiritual 
truths  was  all  in  all,  as  there  are  those  amongst  our- 
selves who  care  for  little  but  what  are  called  clear 
views.  For  such  St.  John  writes — "  and  hereby  we 
do  know  that  we  know  Him,  if  we  keep  His  command- 
ments." ^  There  were  heretics  in  and  about  Ephesus 
who  conceived  that  the  special  favour  of  God,  or  the 
illumination  which  they  obtained  by  junction  with  the 
sect  to  which  they  had  "  gone  out "  from  the  Church, 
neutralised  ihe  poison  of  sin,  and  made  innocuous  for 
them  that  which  might  have  been  deadly  for  others. 
They  suffered,  as  they  thought,  no  more  contamination 
by  it,  than  "  gold  by  lying  upon  the  dunghill "  (to  use 
a  favourite  metaphor  of  their  own).  St.  John  utters 
a  principle  which  cleaves  through  every  fallacy  in  every 
age,  which  says  or  insinuates  that  sin  subjective  can  in 
any  case  cease  to  be  sin  objective.  "  Whosoever  com- 
mitteth  sin  transgresseth  also  the  law,  for  sin  is  the 
transgression  of  the  law.  All  unrighteousness  is  sin."^ 
Possibly  within  the  Church  itself,  certainly  among  the 
sectarians  without  it,  there  was  a  disposition  to  lessen 
the  glory  of  the  Incarnation,  by  looking  upon  the 
Atonement  as  narrow  and  partial  in  its  aim.  St.  John's 
unhesitating  statement  is  that  "  He  is  the  propitiation 
for  the  whole  world."  Thus  does  the  eagle  of  the 
Church  ever  fix  his  gaze  above  the  clouds  of  error, 
upon  the  Sun  of  universal  truth. 

Above  all,  over  and  through  his  negation  of 
temporary  and  local  errors  about  the  person  of  Christ, 
St.  John  leads  the  Church  in  all  ages  to  the  true  Christ. 
Cerinthus,  in  a  form  which  seems  to  us  eccentric  and 
revolting,  proclaimed  a  Jesus  not  born  of  a  virgin, 
temporarily  endowed  with  the  sovereign  power  of  the 
*  I  John  ii.  3.  '^  1  John  lii.  4,  v.  17. 

4 


50  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

Christ,  deprived  of  Him  before  his  passion  and  resur- 
rectior.,  while  the  Christ  remained  spiritual  and  im- 
passible. He  taught  a  commonplace  Jesus.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  Epistle  and  Gospel,  John  "  wings  his 
soul,  and  leads  his  readers  onward  and  upward."  He 
is  like  a  man  who  stands  upon  the  shore  and  looks 
upon  town  and  coast  and  bay.  Then  another  takes  the 
man  off  with  him  far  to  sea.  AH  that  he  surveyed 
before  is  now  lost  to  him  ;  and  as  he  gazes  ever  ocean- 
ward,  he  does  not  stay  his  eye  upon  any  intervening 
object,  but  lets  it  range  over  the  infinite  azure.  So 
the  Apostle  leads  us  above  all  creation,  and  transports 
us  to  the  ages  before  it ;  makes  us  raise  our  eyes,  not 
suffering  us  to  find  any  end  in  the  stretch  above,  since 
end  is  none.^  That  "  in  the  beginning,"  "  from  the 
beginning,"  of  the  Epistle  and  Gospel,  includes  nothing 
short  of  the  eternal  God.  The  doketics  of  many  shades 
proclaimed  an  ideological,  a  misty  Christ.  "  Every 
spirit  which  confesseth  Jesus  Christ  as  in  flesh  having 
come  is  of  God,  and  every  spirit  which  confesseth  not 
Jesus,  is  not  of  God."  "  Many  deceivers  have  gone 
out  into  the  world,  they  who  confess  not  Jesus  Christ 
coming  in  flesh."  *  Such  a  Christ  of  mist  as  these 
words  warn  us  against  is  again  shaped  by  more 
powerful  intellects  and  touched  with  tenderer  lights. 
But  the  shadowy  Christ  of  George  Eliot  and  of  Mill  is 
equally  arraigned  by  the  hand  of  St.  John.  Each 
believer  may  well  think  within  himself — I  must  die,  and 
that,  it  may  be,  very  soon ;  I  must  be  alone  with  God, 
and  my  own  soul ;  with  that  which  I  am,  and  have 
been  ;  with  my  memories,  and  with  my  sins.     In  that 

'  Everj'  one  who  reads  Greek  should  refer  to  the  magnificent  pas- 
sage, S.Joann.  Chrysos.,  injoann.,  Ho^ml.  ii.  4. 

'  I  John  iv.  2 ;  2  John  v.  7.     See  notes  on  the  passages. 


IV.  2, 3.]  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOHN.  5» 

hour  the  weird  desolate  language  of  the  Psalmist  will 
find  its  realisation  :  "  lover  and  friend  hast  thou  put  from 
me,  and  mine  acquaintance  are — darkness^  ^  Then  we 
want,  and  then  we  may  find,  a  real  Saviour.  Then 
we  shall  know  that  if  we  have  only  a  doketic  Christ,  we 
shall  indeed  be  alone — for  "  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of 
the  Son  of  Man,  and  drink  His  blood,  ye  have  no  life 
in  you."  ' 


NOTE. 

The  two  following  extracts,  in  addition  to  what  has 
been  already  said  in  this  discourse,  will  supply  the  reader 
with  that  which  it  is  most  necessary  for  him  to  know 
upon  the  heresies  of  Asia  Minor,  i.  "  Two  principal 
heresies  upon  the  nature  of  Christ  then  prevailed,  each 
diametrically  opposite  to  the  other,  as  well  as  to  the 
Catholic  faith.  One  was  the  heresy  of  the  Doketae, 
which  destroyed  the  verity  of  the  Human  Nature  in 
Christ ;  the  other  was  the  heresy  of  the  Ebionites,  who 
denied  the  Divine  Nature,  and  the  eternal  Generation, 
and  inclined  to  press  the  observation  of  the  cereraonial 
law.  Ancient  writers  allow  these  as  heresies  of  the 
first  century ;  all  admit  that  they  were  powerful  in  the 
age  of  Ignatius.  Hence  Theodoret  (Proasm.)  divided 
the  books  of  these  heresies  into  two  categories.  In 
the  first  he  included  those  who  put  forward  the  idea 
of  a  second  Creator,  and  asserted  that  the  Lord  had 
appeared  illusively.  In  the  second  he  placed  those 
who  maintained  that  the  Lord  was  merely  a  man. 
Of  the  first,  Jerome  observed  (Adv.  Lucijcr.  xxiii.) 
*  that  while  the  Apostles  yet  remained  upon  the  earth, 
while  the  blood  of  Christ  was  almost  smoking  upon 

'  Psalm  Iviii,  i8.  *  John  \ i.  53. 


52  THE  POLEMICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

the  sod  of  Judaea,  some  asserted  that  the  body  of  the 
Lord  was  a  phantom.'  Of  the  second,  the  same  writer 
remarked  that '  St.  John,  at  the  invitation  of  the  bishops 
of  Asia  Minor,  wrote  his  Gospel  against  Cerinthus  and 
other  heretics — and  especially  against  the  dogma  of  the 
Ebionites  then  rising  into  existence,  who  asserted  that 
Christ  did  not  exist  before  Mary.'  Epiphanius  notes 
that  these  heresies  were  mainly  of  Asia  Minor  {<j>r]/M  Se 
iv  Ty  'Aaia),  Hceres.  Ivi."  (Pearson,  Vindic.  Ignat.y  ii., 
c.  i.,  p.  35 1-) 

2.  "  Two  of  these  sects  or  schools  are  very  ancient, 
and  seem  to  have  been  referred  to  by  St.  John.  The 
first  is  that  of  the  Naassenians  or  Ophites.  The 
antiquity  of  this  sect  is  guaranteed  to  us  by  the  author 
of  the  Philosophumena,  who  represents  them  as  the  real 
founders  of  Gnosticism.  "  Later,"  he  says,  "  they  were 
called  Gnostics,  pretending  that  they  only  knew  the 
depths."  (To  this  allusion  is  made  Apoc.  ii.  24,  which 
would  identify  these  sectaries  with  the  Balaamites  and 
Nicolaitans.)  The  second  of  these  great  heresies  of 
Asia  Minor  is  the  doketic.  The  publication  of  the 
Philosophumena  has  furnished  us  with  much  more 
precise  information  about  their  tenets.  We  need  net 
say  much  about  the  divine  emanation — the  fall  of 
souls  into  matter,  their  corporeal  captivity,  their  final 
rehabilitation  (these  are  merely  the  ordinary  Gnostic 
ideas).  But  we  may  follow  what  they  assert  about  the 
Saviour  and  His  manifestation  in  the  world.  They 
admit  in  Him  the  only  Son  of  the  Father  (6  fiovoy€u/)<i 
iral<;  avwOev  al(i)vio<i),  who  descended  to  the  reign  of 
shadows  and  the  Virgin's  womb,  where  He  clothed 
Himself  in  a  gross,  human  material  bod}'.  But  this 
was  a  vestment  of  no  integrally  personal  and  permanent 
character;   it  was,   indeed,  a  sort  of  masquerade,  an 


£v.  2,  3.]  FIRS 7^  EPISTLE   OF  ST.  JOHN:  53 

artifice  or  fiction  imagined  to  deceive  the  prince  of  this 
world.  The  Saviour  at  His  baptism  received  a  second 
birth,  and  clad  Himself  with  a  subtler  texture  of  body, 
formed  in  the  bosom  of  the  waters — if  that  can  be 
termed  a  body  which  was  but  a  fantastic  texture  woven 
or  framed  upon  the  model  of  His  earthly  body.  During 
the  hours  of  the  Passion,  the  flesh  formed  in  Mary's 
womb,  and  it  alone,  was  nailed  to  the  tree.  The  great 
Archon  or  Demiurgus,  whose  work  that  flesh  was,  was 
played  upon  and  deceived,  in  pouring  His  wrath 
only  upon  the  work  of  His  hands.  For  the  soul,  or 
spiritual  substance,  which  had  been  wounded  in  the 
flesh  of  the  Saviour,  extricated  itself  from  this  as  from 
an  unmeet  and  hateful  vesture  ;  and  itself  contributing 
to  nailing  it  to  the  cross,  triumphed  by  that  very  flesh 
over  principalities  and  powers.  It  did  not,  however, 
remain  naked,  but  clad  in  the  subtler  form  which  it 
had  assumed  in  its  baptismal  second  birth  {Philosoph., 
viii.  10).  What  is  remarkable  in  this  theory  is,  first, 
the  admission  of  the  reality  of  the  terrestrial  body, 
formed  in  the  Virgin's  womb,  and  then  nailed  to  the 
cross.  The  negation  is  only  of  the  real  and  permanent 
union  of  this  body  with  the  heavenly  spirit  which 
inhabits  it.  We  shall,  further,  note  the  importance 
which  it  attaches  to  the  Saviour's  baptism,  and  the  part 
played  by  water,  as  if  an  intermediate  element  between 
flesh  and  spirit.     This  may  bear  upon  i  John  v.  8." 

[This  passage  is  from  a  Dissertation — les  Trots 
Te'moins  Celestes,  in  a  collection  of  religious  and  literary 
papers  by  French  scholars  (Tom.  ii.,  Sept.  1868,  pp. 
388-392).  The  author,  since  deceased,  was  the  Abbe 
Le  Hir,  M.  Kenan's  instructor  in  Hebrew  at  Saint 
Sulpice,  and  pronounced  by  his  pupil  one  of  the  first 
of  European  Hebraists  and  scientific  theologians.] 


DISCOURSE  IV. 

THE  IMAGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL  IN  HIS  EPISTLE. 

**  He  that  loveth  pureness  of  heart,  for  the  grace  of  his  lips 
the  king  shall  be  his  friend." — Prov.  xxii.  II. 

6  0e/J.^\ios.  ...  6  deurepos  adir(f>eipoi. — Apoc,  xxi.  19. 


"  We  know  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  sinneth  not ;  but  he 
that  is  begotten  of  God  keepeth  himself,  and  that  wicked  one  toucheth 
him  not.  And  we  know  that  we  are  of  God,  and  the  whole  world 
lieth  in  wickedness.  And  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and 
hath  given  us  an  understanding  that  we  may  know  Him  that  is  true, 
and  we  are  in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This 
is  the  true  God  and  eternal  life." — I  John  v.  18-20. 

MUCH  has  been  said  in  the  last  few  years  of  a 
series  of  subtle  and  delicate  experiments  in 
sound.  Means  have  been  devised  of  doing  for  the 
ear  something  analogous  to  that  which  glasses  do  for 
another  sense,  and  of  making  the  results  palpable  by 
a  system  of  notation.  We  are  told  that  every  tree 
for  instance,  according  to  its  foliage,  its  position,  and 
the  direction  of  the  winds,  has  its  own  prevalent  note 
or  tone,  which  can  be  marked  down,  and  its  timbre 
made  first  visible  by  this  notation,  and  then  audible. 
So  is  it  with  the  souls  of  the  saints  of  God,  and  chiefly 
of  the  Apostles.  Each  has  its  own  note,  the  prevalent 
key  on  which  its  peculiar  music  is  set.  Or  we  may 
employ  another  image  which  possibly  has  St.  John's 
own  authority.  Each  of  the  twelve  has  his  own 
emblem  among  the  twelve  vast  and  precious  foundation 


V.  18-20.]      THE  IMAGE  OF  ST.  JOHNS  SOUL.  55 

stones  which  underlie  the  whole  wall  of  the  Church. 
St.  John  may  thus  differ  from  St.  Peter,  as  the  sap- 
phire's azure  differs  from  the  jasper's  strength  and 
radiance.  Each  is  beautiful,  but  with  its  own  charac- 
teristic tint  of  beauty.^ 

We  propose  to  examine  the  peculiarities  of  St.  John's 
spiritual  nature  which  may  be  traced  in  this  Epistle. 
We  try  to  form  some  conception  of  the  key  on  which 
it  is  set,  of  the  colour  which  it  reflects  in  the  light  of 
heaven,  of  the  image  of  a  soul  which  it  presents.  In 
this  attempt  we  cannot  be  deceived.  St.  John  is  so 
transparently  honest ;  he  takes  such  a  deep,  almost 
terribly  severe  view  of  truth.  We  find  him  using  an  ex- 
pression about  truth  which  is  perhaps  without  a  parallel 
in  any  other  writer.  "  If  we  say  that  we  have  fellow- 
ship with  Him  and  walk  in  darkness  we  lie,  and  are 
not  doing  the  truth" ^  The  truth  then  for  him  is  some- 
thing co-extensive  with  our  whole  nature  and  whole 
life.  Truth  is  not  only  to  be  spoken — that  is  but  a 
fragmentary  manifestation  of  it.  It  is  to  be  done.  It 
would  have  been  for  him  the  darkest  of  lies  to  have 
put  forth  a  spiritual  commentary  on  his  Gospel  which 
was  not  realised  in  himself.  In  the  Epistle,  no  doubt, 
he  uses  the  first  person  singular  sparingly,  modestly  in- 
cluding himself  in  the  simple  we  of  Christian  association. 
Yet  we  are  as  sure  of  the  perfect  accuracy  of  the  picture 
of  his  soul,  of  the  music  in  his  heart  which  he  makes 
visible  and  audible  in  his  letter,  as  we  are  that  he 
heard  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  saw  the  city 
coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven  ;  as  sure,  as  if 
at  the  close  of  this  fifth  chapter  he  had  added  with  the 

'  Apoc.  xxi.  19,  20. 

*  I  John  i.  6,  cf.   John  iii.  21.     It  is  characteristic  of  St.  John's 
style  that  doing  a  lie  is  found  in  Apoc.  xxi.  27,  xxii.  15, 


56  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

triumphant  emphasis  of  truth,  in  his  simple  and  stately 
way,  "  I  John  heard  these  things  and  saw  them."  * 
He  closes  this  letter  with  a  threefold  affirmation  of 
certain  primary  postulates  of  the  Christian  life ;  of  its 
purity,  ^  of  its  privilege  ^  of  its  Presence,*^ — "  we  know/* 
"we  know,"  "  we  know."  In  each  case  the  plural  might 
be  exchanged  for  the  singular.  He  says  "  we  know," 
because  he  is  sure  "  /  know." 

In  studying  the  Epistles  of  St.  John  we  may  well 
ask  what  we  see  and  hear  therein  of  St.  John's  cha- 
racter, (i)  as  a  sacred  writer,  (2)  as  a  saintly  soul. 

I. 

We  consider  first  the  indications  in  the  Epistle  of 
the  Apostle's  character  as  a  sacred  writer. 

For  help  in  this  direction  we  do  not  turn  with  much 
satisfaction  to  essays  or  annotations  pervaded  by  the 
modern  spirit.  The  textual  criticism  of  minute  scholar- 
ship is  no  doubt  much,  but  it  is  not  all.  Aorists  are 
made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  aorist.  He  indeed  who 
has  not  traced  every  fibre  of  the  sacred  text  with 
grammar  and  lexicon  cannot  quite  honestly  claim  to 
be  an  expositor  of  it.  But  in  the  case  of  a  book  like 
Scripture  this,  after  all,  is  but  an  important  preliminary. 
The  frigid  subtlety  of  the  commentator  who  always 
seems  to  have  the  questions  for  a  divinity  examination 
before  his  eyes,  fails  in  the  glow  and  elevation  neces- 
sary to  bring  us  into  communion  with  the  spirit  of  St. 
John.  Led  by  such  guides,  the  Apostle  passes  under 
our  review  as  a  third-rate  writer  of  a  magnificent 
language  in  decadence,  not  as  the  greatest  of  theologians 

•  Apoc.  xxii.  8.  *  Ibid.  19. 

•  I  John  V.  18.  *  ^Kei,  '  has  come, — and  is  here." — Ibid.  20. 


V.  18-20.]  fJV  HIS  EriSTLE.  57 

and  masters  of  the  spiritual  life — with  whatever  defects 
of  literary  style,  at  once  the  Plato  of  the  twelve  in 
one  region,  and  the  Aristotle  in  the  other ;  the  first  by 
his  "lofty  inspiration,"  the  second  by  his  "judicious 
utilitarianism."  The  deepest  thought  of  the  Church 
has  been  brooding  for  seventeen  centuries  over  these 
pregnant  and  many-sided  words,  so  many  of  which 
are  the  very  words  of  Christ.  To  separate  ourselves 
from  this  vast  and  beautiful  commentary  is  to  place 
ourselves  out  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  we  can  best 
feel  the  influence  of  St.  John. 

Let  us  read  Chrysostom's  description  of  the  style 
and  thought  of  the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel.  "The 
son  of  thunder,  the  loved  of  Christ,  the  pillar  of  the 
Churches,  who  leaned  on  Jesus'  bosom,  makes  his 
entrance.  He  plays  no  drama,  he  covers  his  head 
with  no  mask.  Yet  he  wears  array  of  inimitable  beauty. 
For  he  comes  having  his  feet  shod  with  the  preparation 
of  the  Gospel  of  peace,  and  his  loins  girt,  not  with 
fleece  dyed  in  purple,  or  bedropped  with  gold,  but 
woven  through  and  through  with,  and  composed  of,  the 
truth  itself.  He  will  now  appear  before  us,  not  drama- 
tically, for  with  him  there  is  no  theatrical  effect  or 
fiction,  but  with  his  head  bared  he  tells  the  bare  truth. 
All  these  things  he  will  speak  with  absolute  accuracy, 
being  the  friend  of  the  King  Himself — aye,  having  the 
King  speaking  within  him,  and  hearing  all  things 
from  Him  which  He  heareth  from  the  Father ;  as  He 
saith — 'you  I  have  called  friends,  for  all  things  that  I 
have  heard  from  My  Father,  I  have  made  known  unto 
you.'  Wherefore,  as  if  we  all  at  once  saw  one  stooping 
down  from  yonder  heaven,  and  promising  to  tell  us 
truly  of  things  there,  we  should  all  flock  to  listen  to 
him,  so  let  us  now  dispose  ourselves.     For  it  is  from 


58  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

up  there  that  this  man  speaks  down  to  us.  And  the 
fisherman  is  not  carried  away  by  the  whirhng  current 
of  his  own  exuberant  verbosity  ;  but  all  that  he  utters 
is  with  the  steadfast  accuracy  of  truth,  and  as  if  he 
stood  upon  a  rock  he  budges  not.  All  time  is  his 
witness.  Seest  thou  the  boldness,  and  the  gieat 
authority  of  his  words  !  how  he  utters  nothing  by  way 
of  doubtful  conjecture,  but  all  demonstratively,  as  if 
passing  sentence.  Very  lofty  is  this  Apostle,  and  full 
of  dogmas,  and  lingers  over  them  more  than  over 
other  things!"^  This  admirable  passage,  with  its 
fresh  and  noble  enthusiasm,  nowhere  reminds  us  of 
the  glacial  subtleties  of  the  schools.  It  is  the  utterance 
of  an  expositor  who  spoke  the  language  in  which  his 
master  wrote,  and  breathed  the  same  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere. It  is  scarcely  less  true  of  the  Epistle  than  of 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

Here  also  "  he  is  full  of  dogmas,"  here  again  he  is 
the  theologian  of  the  Church.  But  we  are  not  to 
estimate  the  amount  of  dogma  merely  by  the  number 
of  words  in  which  it  is  expressed.  Dogma,  indeed,  is 
not  really  composed  of  isolated  texts — as  pollen  showered 
from  conifers  and  germs  scattered  from  mosses,  acci- 
dentally brought  together  and  compacted,  are  found 
upon  chemical  anal^'sis  to  make  up  certain  lumps  of 
coal.  It  is  primary  and  structural.  The  Divinity 
and  Incarnation  of  Jesus  pervade  the  First  Epistle. 
Its  whole  structure  is  Trinitarian?'     It  contains  two  of 

'  S.  Joann.   Chrysost.,  in  Johan.,  Homil.  iii.,    Tom.    viii.,  25,  36, 

Edit.  Migne. 

*  Huther,  while  rejecting  with  all  impartial  critics  the  interpolation 
(i  John  V.  7),  writes  thus:  "when  we  embrace  in  one  survey  the 
contents  of  the  Epistle  as  a  who'e,  it  is  certainly  easy  to  adapt  the 
conception  of  the  three  Heavenly  witnesses  to  one  place  after  another 
in  the  document.     But  it  dees  not  follow  that  the  mention  of  it  just 


V.  18-20.]  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  59 

the  three  great  three-word  dogmatic  utterances  of  the 
New  Testament  about  the  nature  of  God  (the  first 
being  in  the  fourth  Gospel) — "  God  is  Spirit,"  "  God 
is  light,"  "  God  is  love."  The  chief  dogmatic  state- 
ments of  the  Atonement  are  found  in  these  few  chapters. 
"The  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin."  "  VVe  have  an  Advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus 
Christ  the  Righteous."  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  the 
whole  world."  "  God  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins."  Where  the  Apostle  passes 
on  to  deal  with  the  spiritual  life,  he  once  more  "  is  full 
of  dogmas,"  i.e.,  of  eternal  self-evidenced  oracular 
sentences,  spoken  as  if  "  down  from  heaven,"  or  by 
one  "  whose  foot  is  upon  a  rock," — apparently  identical 
propositions,  all-inclusive,  the  dogmas  of  moral  and 
spiritual  life,  as  those  upon  the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation, 
the  Atonement,  are  of  strictly  theological  truth.  A 
further  characteristic  of  St.  John  as  a  sacred  writer  in 
his  Epistle  is,  that  he  appears  to  indicate  throughout 
the  moral  and  spiritual  conditions  which  were  necessary 
for  receiving  the  Gospel  with  which  he  endowed  the 
Church  as  the  life  of  their  life.  These  conditions  are 
three.  The  first  is  spiriiiiality,  submission  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  know  by  it  the  meaning 
of  the  words  of  Jesus — the  "anointing"  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  is  ever  "teaching  all  things"  that  He 
said.^  The  second  condition  is  purity^  at  least,  the 
continuing  effort  after  self-purification  which  is  incum- 
bent even  upon  those  who  have  received  the  great 
pardon.^     This  involves  the   following  in  life's  daily 

here  would  be  in  its  right  place."  {Handbuch  iiber  der  drei  Briefe  des 
Johannes.    Dr.  J.  E.  Huther.) 

'  I  John  ii.  20. 

'  I  John  i.  7»  iii-  3. 


6o  THE  IMAGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

walk  of  the  One  perfect  life- walk,'  the  imitation  of  that 
which  is  supremely  good,^  "incarnated  in  an  actual 
earthly  career."  All  must  be  purity,  or  effort  after 
purity,  on  the  side  of  those  who  would  read  aright  the 
Gospel  of  the  immaculate  Lamb  of  God.  The  third 
condition  for  such  readers  is  love — charity.  When  he 
comes  to  deal  fully  with  that  great  theme,  the  eagle  of 
God  wheels  far  out  of  sight.  In  the  depths  of  His 
Eternal  Being,  "  God  is  love." '  Then  this  truth  comes 
closer  to  us  as  believers.  It  stands  completely  and  for 
ever  manifested  in  its  work  in  us^  because  "  God  hath 
sent"  (a  mission  in  the  past,  but  with  abiding  conse- 
quences)^ "  His  Son,  His  only-begotten  Son  into  the 
world,  that  we  may  live  through  Him."  Yet  again,  he 
rises  higher  from  the  manifestation  of  this  love  to  the 
eternal  and  essential  principle  in  which  it  stands  present 
for  ever.  "  In  this  is  the  love,  not  that  we  loved  God, 
but  that  God  loved  us,  and  once  for  all  sent  His  Son  a 
propitiation  for  our  sins."®  Then  follows  the  manifesta- 
tion of  our  love.  "If  God  so  loved  us,  we  also  are 
bound  to  love  one  another."  Do  we  think  it  strange 
that  St.  John  does  not  first  draw  the  lesson — "  if  God 
so  loved  us,  we  also  are  bound  to  love  God  "  ?  It  has 
been  in  his  heart  all  along,  but  he  utters  it  in  his  own 
way,  in  the  solemn  pathetic  question — "  he  that  loveth 

'  I  John  ii.  6. 

*  "  Imitate  not  that  which  is  evil,  but  that  which  is  good " 
(3  John  12).  A  comparison  of  this  verse  with  John  xxi.  24  would 
lead  to  the  supposition  that  the  writer  of  the  letter  is  quoting  the 
Gospel,  and  assumes  an  intimate  knowledge  of  it  on  the  part  of  CaiuSi 
See  Discourse  XVII.  Part  ii.  of  this  vol. 

*  See  note  A  at  the  end  of  this  discourse. 

*  I  John  iv.  9. 


V.  I8-20.]  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  6i 

not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  God  whom  he 
hath  not  seen  how  can  he  love  ?  "  ^  Yet  once  more  he 
sums  up  the  creed  in  a  few  short  words.  "  We  have 
beh'eved  the  love  that  God  hath  in  us."  *  Truly  and 
deeply  has  it  been  said  that  this  creed  of  the  heart, 
suffused  with  the  softest  tints  and  sweetest  colours, 
goes  to  the  root  of  all  heresies  upon  the  Incarnation, 
whether  in  St.  John's  time  or  later.  That  God  should 
give  up  His  Son  by  sending  Him  forth  in  humanity;  that 
the  Word  made  flesh  should  humble  Himself  to  the  death 
upon  the  cross,  the  Sinless  offer  Himself  for  sinners, 
this  is  what  heresy  cannot  bring  itself  to  understand. 
It  is  the  excess  of  such  love  which  makes  it  incredible. 
"We  have  believed  the  love"  is  the  whole  faith  of  a 
Christian  man.  It  is  St.  John's  creed  in  three  words.^ 
Such  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  St.  John  as  g 
sacred  writer,  which  may  be  traced  in  his  Epistle. 
These  characteristics  of  the  author  imply  corresponding 
characteristics  of  the  man.  He  who  states  with  such 
inevitable  precision,  with  such  noble  and  self-contained 
enthusiasm,  the  great  dogmas  of  the  Christian  faith, 
the  great  laws  of  the  Christian  life,  must  himself  have 
entirely  believed  them.  He  who  insists  upon  these 
conditions  in  the  readers  of  his  Gospel,  must  himself 
have  aimed  at,  and  possessed,  spirituality,  purity,  and 
love. 

II. 

We  proceed  to  look  at  the  First  Epistle  as  a  picture 
of  the  soul  of  its  author. 

(l)  His  was  a  life  free  from  the  dominion  of  wilful 
and  habitual  sin  of  any  kind.     "  Whosover  is  born  of 

•  1  John  iv.  20. 

•  I  John  iv.  16. 

•  TrewiaTfVKaiJLcu  r^f  dydirr]!',  I  John  iv,  16. 


62  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

God  doth  not  commit  sin,  and  he  cannot  continue 
sinning."  "Whosoever  abideth  in  Him  sinneth  not; 
whosoever  sinneth  hath  not  seen  Him,  neither  known 
Him."  A  man  so  entirely  true,  if  conscious  to  himself 
of  any  reigning  sin,  dare  not  have  deliberately  written 
these  words. 

(2)  But  if  St.  John's  was  a  life  free  from  subjection 
to  any  form  of  the  power  of  sin,  he  shows  us  that 
sanctity  is  not  sinlessness,  in  language  which  it  is  alike 
unwise  and  unsafe  to  attempt  to  explain  away.  "If 
we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves."  "If 
we  say  that  we  have  not  sinned  and  are  not  sinners,  we 
make  Him  a  liar."  But  so  long  as  we  do  not  fall  back 
into  darkness,  the  blood  of  Jesus  is  ever  purifying  us 
from  all  sin.  This  he  has  written  that  the  fulness  of 
the  Christian  life  may  be  realised  in  believers ;  that 
each  step  of  their  walk  may  follow  the  blessed  foot- 
prints of  the  most  holy  life ;  that  each  successive  act 
of  a  consecrated  existence  may  be  free  from  sin.^  And 
yet,  if  any  fail  in  some  such  single  act,*  if  he  swerve,  for 
a  moment,  from  the  "  true  tenour  "  of  the  course  which 
he  is  shaping,  there  is  no  reason  to  despair.  Beautiful 
humility  of  this  pure  and  lofty  soul !  How  tenderly, 
with  what  lowly  graciousness  he  places  himself  among 
those  who  have  and  who  need  an  Advocate.  "  Mark 
John's  humility,"  cries  St.  Augustine;  "he  says  not  ^ ye 
have,*  nor  'ye  have  me^  nor  even  ^ ye  have  Christ.' 
But  he  puts  forward  Christ,  not  himself;  and  he  says 

'  For  the  aor.  conj.  in  this  place  as  distinguished  from  the  pres. 
conj.  cf.  John  v.  20,  23,  vi.  28,  29,  30.  Professor  Westcott's  refined 
scholarship  corrects  the  error  of  many  commentators,  "  that  the  Apostle 
is  simply  warning  us  not  to  draw  encouragement  for  license  from  the 
doctrine  of  forgiveness."  The  tense  is  decisive  against  this,  the 
thought  is  of  the  single  act  not  of  the  state. 

'idv  Tis  afidprri,  I  John  ii.  I. 


V.  I8-20.]  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  63 

*we  have,'  not  'ye  have,'  thus  placing  himself  in  the 
rank  of  sinners,"  ^  Nor  does  St.  John  cover  himself 
under  the  subterfuges  by  which  men  at  different  times 
have  tried  to  get  rid  of  a  truth  so  humiliating  to 
spiritual  pride — sometimes  by  asserting  that  they  so 
stand  accepted  in  Christ  that  no  sin  is  accounted  to 
them  for  such ;  sometimes  by  pleading  personal  exemp- 
tion for  themselves  as  believers. 

This  Epistle  stands  alone  in  the  New  Testament  in 
being  addressed  to  two  generations — one  of  which  after 
conversion  had  grown  old  in  a  Christian  atmosphere, 
whilst  the  other  had  been  educated  from  the  cradle 
under  the  influences  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  is 
therefore  natural  that  such  a  letter  should  give  pro- 
minence to  the  constant  need  of  pardon.  It  certainly 
does  not  speak  so  much  of  the  great  initial  pardon,^  as 
of  the  continuing  pardons  needed  by  human  frailty.  In 
dwelling  upon  pardon  once  given,  upon  sanctification 
once  begun,  men  are  possibly  apt  to  forget  the  pardon 
that  is  daily  wanting,  the  purification  that  is  never  to 
cease.  We  are  to  walk  daily  from  pardon  to  pardon, 
from  purification  to  purification.  Yesterday's  surrender 
of  self  to  Christ  may  grow  ineffectual  if  it  be  not  re- 
newed to-day.  This  is  sometimes  said  to  be  a  humilia- 
ting view  of  the  Christian  life.  Perhaps  so — but  it  is 
the  view  of  the  Church,  which  places  in  its  offices  a 
daily  confession  of  sin;  of  St.  John  in  this  Epistle,; 
nay,  of  Him  who  teaches  us,  after  our  prayers  for  bread 
day  by  day,  to  pray  for  a  daily  forgiveness.  This  may 
be  more  humiliating,  but  it  is  safer  teaching  than  that 
which  proclaims  a  pardon  to  be  appropriated  in  a 
moment  for  all  sins  past,  present,  and  to  come. 

*  In  Episf.Johann.,  Tract.  I. 

■  I  John  ii.  12,  is,  of  course,  an  important  exception. 


©4  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

This  humility  may  be  traced  incidentally  in  other 
regions  of  the  Christian  life.  Thus  he  speaks  of  the 
possibility  at  least  of  his  being  among  those  who  might 
"shrink  with  shame  from  Christ  in  His  coming."  He 
does  not  disdain  to  write  as  if,  in  hours  of  spiritual 
depression,  there  were  tests  by  which  he  too  might 
need  to  lull  and  "  persuade  his  heart  before  God."  ^ 

(3)  St.  John  again  has  a  boundless  faith  in  prayer. 
It  is  the  key  put  into  the  child's  hand  by  which  he 
may  let  himself  into  the  house,  and  come  into  his 
Father's  presence  when  he  will,  at  any  hour  of  the 
night  or  day.  And  prayer  made  according  to  the 
conditions  which  God  has  laid  down  is  never  quite 
lost.  The  particular  thing  asked  for  may  not  indeed 
be  given ;  but  the  substance  of  the  request,  the  holier 
wish,  the  better  purpose  underlying  its  weakness  and 
imperfection,  never  fails  to  be  granted.  ^ 

(4)  All  but  superficial  readers  must  perceive  that  in 
the  writings  and  character  of  St.  John  there  is  from 
time  to  time  a  tonic  and  wholesome  severity.  Art  and 
modern  literature  have  agreed  to  bestow  upon  the 
Apostle  of  love  the  features  of  a  languid  and  inert 
tenderness.  It  is  forgotten  that  St.  John  was  the  son 
of  thunder;  that  he  could  once  wish  to  bring  down 
fire  from  heaven;  and  that  the  natural  character  is  trans- 
figured not  inverted  by  grace.  The  Apostle  uses  great 
plainness  of  speech.  For  him  a  lie  is  a  lie,  and  dark- 
ness is  never  courteously  called  light.  He  abhors  and 
shudders  at  those  heresies  which  rob  the  soul  first  of 
Christ,  and  then  of  God.  ^     Those  who  undermine  the 

•  I  Jolin  iii.  19,  20. 

*  See  Prof.  Westcott's  valuable  note  on  I  John  v.  15.     The  very 
things  literally  asked  for  would  be  ra  alrr]0ti>Ta,  not  tA  aln^fiara. 

*  2  John  II. 


V.  18-20.]  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  65 

Incarnation  are  for  him  not  interesting  and  original 
speculators,  but  "lying  prophets."  He  underlines  his 
warnings  against  such  men  with  his  roughest  and 
blackest  pencil  mark.  "Whoso  sayeth  to  him  'good 
speed'  hath  fellowship  with  his  works,  those  wicked 
works  "  ^ — for  such  heresy  is  not  simply  one  work,  but 
a  series  of  works.  The  schismatic  prelate  or  pretender 
Diotrephes  may  "  babble ; "  but  his  babblings  are 
wicked  words  for  all  that,  and  are  in  truth  the  "  works 
which  he  is  doing." 

The  influence  of  every  great  Christian  teacher  lasts 
long  beyond  the  day  of  his  death.  It  is  felt  in  a 
general  tone  and  spirit,  in  a  special  appropriation  of 
certain  parts  of  the  creed,  in  a  peculiar  method  of  the 
Christian  life.  This  influence  is  very  discernible  in 
the  remains  of  two  disciples  of  St.  John,  ^  Ignatius  and 
Polycarp.  In  writing  to  the  Ephesians,  Ignatius  does 
not  indeed  explicitly  refer  to  St.  John's  Epistle,  as 
he  does  to  that  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Ephesians.  But  he 
draws  in  a  few  bold  lines  a  picture  of  the  Christian 
life  which  is  imbued  with  the  very  spirit  of  St.  John. 
The  character  which  the  Apostle  loved  was  quiet 
and  real ;  we  feel  that  his  heart  is  not  with  "  him  that 
sayeth."'  So  Ignatius  writes — "it  is  better  to  keep 
silence,  and  yet  to  be,  than  to  talk  and  not  to  be.  It  is 
good  to  teach  if  '  he  that  sayeth  doeth.'  He  who  has 
gotten  to  himself  the  word  of  Jesus  truly  is  able  to  hear 
the  silence  of  Jesus  also,  so  that  he  may  act  through 
that  which  he  speaks,  and  be  known  through  the  things 
wherein  he  is  silent.  Let  us  therefore  do  all  things 
as  in  His  presence  who  dwelleth  in  us,  that  we  may 

»  3  John  10. 

•  Mart.  Ignat.,  i.     S.  Hieyoti,  de  Script,  Eccles.,  xvU, 
it  Xt7wf,  I  John  ii.  4,  6,  9, 


66  THE  IMAGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

be  His  temple,  and  that  He  may  be  in  us  our  God." 
This  is  the  very  spirit  of  St.  John.  We  feel  in  it  at 
once  his  severe  common  sense  and  his  glorious  mysticism. 
We  must  add  that  the  influence  of  St.  John  may  be 
traced  in  matters  which  are  often  considered  alien  to 
his  simple  and  spiritual  piety.  It  seems  that  Episcopacy 
was  consolidated  and  extended  under  his  fostering 
care.  The  language  of  his  disciple  Ignatius,  upon  the 
necessity  of  union  with  the  Episcopate  is,  after  all 
conceivable  deductions,  of  startling  strength.  A  few 
decades  could  not  possibly  have  removed  Ignatius  so 
far  from  the  lines  marked  out  to  him  by  St.  John  as 
he  must  have  advanced,  if  this  teaching  upon  Church 
government  was  a  new  departure.  And  with  this  con- 
ception of  Church  government  we  must  associate  other 
matters  also.  The  immediate  successors  of  St.  John, 
who  had  learned  from  his  lips,  held  deep  sacramental 
views.  The  Eucharist  is  "  the  bread  of  God,  the 
bread  of  heaven,  the  bread  of  life,  the  flesh  of  Christ." 
Again  Ignatius  cries — "  desire  to  use  one  Eucharist, 
for  one  is  the  flesh  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
one  cup  unto  oneness  of  His  blood,  one  altar,  as  one 
Bishop,  with  the  Presbytery  and  deacons.'"^  Hints 
are  not  wanting  that  sweetness  and  hfe  in  public 
worship  derived  inspiration  from  the  same  quarter. 
The  language  of  Ignatius  is  deeply  tinged  with  his 
passion  for  music.  ^     The  beautiful  story,  how  he  set 

*  Ignat.  Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  xv.,  cf.  I  John  ii.  14,  iv.  9,  17,  iii.  2. 

'  5.  Igiiat.  Epist.  ad  Philad.,  iv. ;  cf.  Epist.  ad  Stiiyrn.,  vii. ;  Epist. 
md  Ephcs.,  XX. 

'  The  most  elaborate  passage  in  the  Ignatian  remains  is  probably 
this.  "  Let  your  Presbytery  be  fitted  together  harmoniously  with 
the  Bishop  as  chords  with  the  cithara.  Hereby  in  your  symphonious 
love  Jesus  Christ  is  sung  in  concord.  Taking  your  part  man  by  man 
become  one  choir,  that  being  harmoniously  accordant  in  your  like- 


V.  I8-20.J  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  67 

down,  immediately  after  a  vision,  the  melody  to  which 
he  had  heard  the  angels  chanting,  and  caused  it  to  be 
used  in  his  church  at  Antioch,  attests  the  impression 
of  enthusiasm  and  care  for  sacred  song  which  was 
associated  with  the  memory  of  Ignatius/  Nor  can  we 
be  surprised  at  these  features  of  Ephesian  Christianity, 
when  we  remember  who  was  the  founder  of  those 
Churches.  He  was  the  writer  of  three  books.  These 
books  come  to  us  with  a  continuous  living  interpre- 
tation of  more  than  seventeen  centuries  of  historical 
Christianity.  From  the  fourth  Gospel  in  large  measure 
has  arisen  the  sacramental  instinct,  from  the  Apocalypse 
the  aesthetic  instinct,  which  has  been  certainly  exag- 
gerated both  in  the  East  and  West.  The  third  and 
sixth  chapters  of  St.  John's  Gospel  permeate  every 
baptismal  and  eucharistic  office.  Given  an  inspired 
book  which  represents  the  worship  of  the  redeemed 
as  one  of  perfect  majesty  and  beauty,  men  may  well 
in  the  presence  of  noble  churches  and  stately  liturgies, 
adopt  the  words  of  our  great  English  Christian  poet — 

"  things  which  shed  upon  the  outward  frame 
Of  worship  glory  and  grace — which  who  shall  blame 
That  ever  look'd  to  heaven  for  final  rest?" 

The  third  book  in  this  group  of  writings  supplies 
the  sweet  and  quiet  spirituality  which  is  the  foundation 
of  every  regenerate  nature. 

Such  is  the  image  of  the  soul  which  is  presented  to  us 
by  St.  John  himself.  It  is  based  upon  a  firm  conviction 
of  the  nature  of  God,  of  the  Divinity,  the  Incarnation, 

mindedness,  having  received  in  unity  the  chromatic  musi?  of  God 
(xpi^/j-a  Qtou  XajSoVres),  ye  may  sing  with  one  voice  through  Jesus 
Christ  unto  the  Father," — Epist.  ad  Ephes.,  iv.  The  same  mage  is 
differently  applied,  Epist.  ad  Philad.,  i. 

'  The  story  is  given  by  Socrates.     (^Hisi.,  vi.  8.) 


68  THE  IMAGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

the  Atonement  of  our  Lord.  It  is  spiritual.  It  is  pure, 
or  being  purified.  The  highest  theological  truth — "  God 
is  Love " — supremely  realised  in  the  Holy  Trinity, 
supremely  manifested  in  the  sending  forth  of  God's 
only  Son,  becomes  the  law  of  its  common  social  life, 
made  visible  in  gentle  patience,  in  giving  and  forgiving,^ 
Such  a  life  will  be  free  from  the  degradation  of 
habitual  sin.  Yet  it  is  at  best  an  imperfect  representa- 
tion of  the  one  perfect  life.^  It  needs  unceasing  purifi- 
cation by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  the  continual  advocacy 
of  One  who  is  sinless.  Suoh  a  nature,  however  full  of 
charity,  will  not  be  weakly  indulgent  to  vital  error  or 
to  ambitious  schism  ;  ^  for  it  knows  the  value  of  truth 
and  unity.  It  feels  the  sweetness  of  a  calm  conscience, 
and  of  a  simple  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  Over 
every  such  life — over  all  the  grief  that  may  be,  all  the 
temptation  that  must  be — is  the  purifying  hope  of  a  great 
Advent,  the  ennobling  assurance  of  a  perfect  victory, 
the  knowledge  that  if  we  continue  true  to  the  principle 
of  our  new  birth  we  are  safe.  And  our  safety  is,  not 
that  we  keep  ourselves,  but  that  we  are  kept  by  arms 
which  are  as  soft  as  love,  and  as  strong  as  eternity.* 

These  Epistles  are  full  of  instruction  and  of  comfort 
for  us,  just  because  they  are  written  in  an  atmosphere 
of  the  Church  which,  in  one  respect  at  least,  resembles 
our  own.  There  is  in  them  no  reference  whatever  to 
a  continuance  of  miraculous  powers,  to  raptures,  or  to 
extraordinary  phenomena.  All  in  them  which  is  super- 
natural continues  even  to  this  day,  in  the  possession 
of  an   inspired   record,  in  sacramental  grace,    in   the 

»  I  John  iv.  7,  12. 

•  I  John  ii.  6,  9,  i.  7-IO,  ii.  I,  2. 

•  I  John  i.  7,  ii.  2,  iv.  3,  6  ;  2  John  7-1 1 ;  3  John  9,  la 

•  I  John  ill.  19,  V.  14,  IS,  iv.  2,  3,  v.  4,  5,  18. 


V.  18-20.]  IN  HIS  EPISTLE.  69 

pardon  and  holiness,  the  peace  and  strength  of  believers. 
The  apocryphal  "Acts  of  John"  contain  some  fragments 
of  real  beauty  almost  lost  in  questionable  stories  and 
prolix  declamation.  It  is  probably  not  literally  true 
that  when  St.  John  in  early  life  wished  to  make  himself 
a  home,  his  Lord  said  to  him,  "  I  have  need  of  thee, 
John ; "  that  that  thrilling  voice  once  came  to  him, 
wafted  over  the  still  darkened  sea — "  John,  hadst  thou 
not  been  Mine,  I  would  have  suffered  thee  to  marry."  ^ 
But  the  Epistle  shows  us  much  more  effectually  that 
he  had  a  pure  heart  and  virgin  will.  It  is  scarcely 
probable  that  the  son  of  Zebedee  ever  drained  a  cup 
of  hemlock  with  impunity  ;  but  he  bore  within  him  an 
effectual  charm  against  the  poison  of  sin.^  We  of  this 
nineteenth  century  may  smile  when  we  read  that  he 
possessed  the  power  of  turning  leaves  into  gold,  of 
transmuting  pebbles  into  jewels,  of  fusing  shattered 
gems  into  one ;  but  he  carried  with  him  wherever  he 
went  that  most  excellent  gift  of  charity,  which  makes 
the  commonest  things  of  earth  radiant  with  beauty.' 

'  These  sentences  do  not  go  so  far  as  the  mischievous  and  anti- 
scriptural  legend  of  later  ascetic  heretics,  who  marred  the  beauty  and 
the  purpose  of  the  miracle  at  Cana,  by  asserting  that  John  was  the 
bridegroom,  and  that  our  Lord  took  him  away  from  his  bride. 
Ada  Johannis,  XXI.  Act.  Apost.  Apoc,  Tisch.,  275). 

*  This  legend  no  doubt  arose  from  the  promise — "  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing  it  shall  not  hurt  them  "  (Mark  xvi.  18). 

"  Virus  fidens  sorbuit."    Adam  of  St.  Victor,  Seq.  XXXIIL 

•  "  Aurum  hie  de  frondibus, 
Gemmas  de  silicibus, 
Fractis  de  fragminibus, 
Fecit  firmas." — Ibid. 

There  is  something  interesting  in  the  persistency  of  legends  about 
St.  John's  power  over  gems,  when  connected  with  the  passage, 
flashing  all  over  with  the  light  of  precious  stones,  whose  exquisite 
disposition  is  the  wonder  of  lapidaries.    Apoc.  xxi.  18,  22. 


7©  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL 

He  may  not  actually  have  praised  his  Master  during 
his  last  hour  in  words  which  seem  to  us  not  quite 
unworthy  even  of  such  lips — "  Thou  art  the  only  Lord, 
the  root  of  immortality,  the  fountain  of  incorruption. 
Thou  who  madest  our  rough  wild  nature  soft  and  quiet, 
who  deliveredst  me  from  the  imagination  of  the  moment, 
and  didst  keep  me  safe  within  the  guard  of  that  which 
abideth  for  ever."  But  such  thoughts  in  life  or  death 
were  never  far  from  him  for  whom  Christ  was  the  Word 
and  the  Life  ;  who  knew  that  while* "  the  world  passeth 
away  and  the  lust  thereof,  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God 
abideth  for  ever."  ^ 

May  we  so  look  upon  this  image  of  the  Apostle's 
soul  in  his  Epistle  that  we  may  reflect  something  of 
its  brightness  !  May  we  be  able  to  think,  as  we  turn 
to  this  threefold  assertion  of  knowledge — "/  know 
something  of  the  security  of  this  keeping,^  /  know 
something  of  the  sWeetness  of  being  in  the  Church, 
that  isle  of  light  surrounded  by  a  darkened  world.'  / 
know  something  of  the  beauty  of  the  perfect  human 
life  recorded  by  St.  John,  something  of  the  continued 
presence  of  the  Son  of  God,  something  of  the  new 
sense  which  He  gives,  that  we  may  know  Him  who 
is  the  Very  God.*  Blessed  exchange  not  to  be  vaunted 
loudly,  but  spoken  reverently  in  our  own  hearts — the 
exchange  of  we,  for  I.  There  is  much  divinity  in  these 
pronouns/ 

*  See  note  B  at  the  end  of  the  Discourse 
■  I  John  V.  i8. 

*  Ibid.  V.  19. 

*  Ibid.  V.  20. 

*  Said  by  Luther  of  Psalm  xxii.  I 


r.  18-20.]  :n  his  epistle.  71 


NOTES.    • 
Note  A. 

I  John  iv.  8,  9,  10.  Modern  theological  schools  of  a 
Calvinistic  bias  have  tended  to  overlook  the  conception  of  the 
nature  of  God  as  essential  or  substantive  Love,  and  to  consider 
love  only  as  manifested  in  redemption.  Socinianising  inter- 
preters understand  the  proposition  to  mean  that  God  is  simply 
and  exclusively  benevolent.  (On  the  inadequacy  of  this,  see 
Butler,  Anal.,  Part  I.,  ch.  iii.,  and  Dissertation  II.  of  the  Nature 
of  Virtue.)  The  highest  Christian  thought  has  ever  recog- 
nised that  the  proposition  '  God  is  Love  '  necessarily  involves 
the  august  truth  that  God  if  sole  is  not  solitary.  ("  Credimur 
et  confitemur  omnipotentem  Trinitatem — unum  Deum  solum 
non  solitarium.^'  Concil.  Tolet.,  vi.  i.)  "  Let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed," said  St.  Bernard,  "that  I  here  accoun-t  Love  as  an 
attribute  or  accident,  but  as  the  Divine  essence — no  new 
doctrine,  seeing  that  St.  John  saith  'God  is  love.'  It  may 
rightly  be  said  both  that  Love  is  God,  and  that  love  is  the  gift 
of  God.  For  Love  gives  love  ;  the  essential  Love  gives  that 
•which  is  accidental.  When  Love  signifies  the  Giver,  it  is  the 
name  of  His  essence  ;  when  it  signifies  His  gift,  it  is  the  name 
of  a  quality  or  attribute"  (6*.  Bernard.,  de  dil.  Deo,  xii.). 
"This  is  nobly  said.  God  is  love.  Thus  love  is  the  eternal 
law  whereby  all  things  were  created  and  are  governed — where- 
with He  who  is  the  law  of  all  things  is  unto  Himself  His  own 
law,  and  that  a  law  of  love — wherewith  He  bindeth  His  Trinity 
into  Unity."     {Thomassin.  Dogm.  Theol.,  lib.  iii.,  23.) 

Note  B. 

17  p'l^a  T^f  adavatrias  Kcii  f)  nrjyf]  Trjs  d<f}6ap(nas'  6  rrjv  fprjfxov  Kai 
dypKcdf'iaav  (fivaiv  fjpaiv  ^ptpov  icdl  ijcrvxi-ov  Trotrjaas,  6  rrjs  npocrKaipov 
<f>avTa(Tias  pvaap-ivus  p.e  Kai  els  rfjv  del  pevovaav  (fjpovprjcras  {Acta 
yohannis,  21).  These  sentences  are  surely  not  without  fresh- 
ness and  power.  One  other  passage  is  worth  translating, 
because  it  seems  to  have  just  that  imaginative  cast  which 
makes  the  Greek  Liturgies,  like  so  much  else  that  is  Greek, 
stand  midway  between  the  East  and  West ;  and  because  it 


72  THE  IMAGE   OF  ST.  JOHN'S  SOUL. 

apparently  refers  to  St.  John's  Gospel.  "  Jesus  !  Thou  who 
hast  woven  this  coronal  with  Thy  plaiting,  who  hast  blended 
these  many  flowers  into  the  flower  of  Thy  presence,  not  blown 
through  by  the  winds  of  any  storm  ;  Thou  who  hast  scattered 
thickly  abroad  the  seed  of  these  words  of  Thine" — {Acta 
Johannis^  17). 


PART    II. 


SOME  GENERAL  RULES  FOR  THE  INTER- 
PRETATION OF  THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF 
ST.  JOHN. 


L  Subject  Matter. 

(l)  'nn*HE  Epistle  is  to  be  read  through  with  constant 
J.  reference  to  the  Gospel.  In  what  precise  form 
the  former  is  related  to  the  latter  (whether  as  a  preface 
or  as  an  appendix,  as  a  spiritual  commentary  or  an 
encyclical)  critics  may  decide.  But  there  is  a  vital 
and  constant  connection.  The  two  documents  not 
only  touch  each  other  in  thought,  but  interpenetrate 
each  other  ;  and  the  Epistle  is  constantly  suggesting 
questions  which  the  Gospel  only  can  answer,  e.g., 
I  John  i.  I,  cf.  John  i.  1-14 ;  l  John  v.  9,  "  witness  of 
men,"  cf.  John  i.  15-36,  41,  4$,  49,  iii-  2,  27-36, 
iv.  29-42,  vi.  68,  69,  vii.  46,  ix.  38,  xi.  27,  xviii. 
38,  xix.  5,  6,  XX.  28. 

(2)  Such  eloquence  of  style  as  St.  John  possesses 
is  real  rather  than  verbal.  The  interpreter  must  look 
not  only  at  the  words  themselves,  but  at  that  which 
precedes  znd  follows ;  above  all  he  must  fix  his  attention 
not  only  upon  the  verbal  expression  of  the  thought, 
but  upon  the  thought  itself.  For  the  formal  connecting 
link  is  not  rarely  omitted,  and  must  be  supplied  by  the 
devout  and  candid  diligence  of  the  reader.     The  "  root 


76    GENERAL  RULES  FOR  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF 

below  the  stream  '  can  only  be  traced  by  our  bending 
over  the  water  until  it  becomes  translucent  to  us. 

E.g.  I  John  i.  7,  8.  Ver.  7,  "  the  root  below  the 
stream  "  is  a  question  of  this  kind^  which  naturally 
arises  from  reading  ver.  6 — "  must  it  be  said  that  the 
sons  of  light  need  a  constant  cleansing  by  the  blood 
of  Jesus,  which  implies  a  constant  guilt "  ?  Some  such 
thought  is  the  latent  root  of  connection.  The  answer 
is  supplied  by  the  following  verse.  ["  It  is  so  "  for]  "  if 
we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,"  etc.  Cf.  also  iii.  16, 
17,  xiv.  8,  9,  10,  II,  V.  3  (ad.  fin.),  4. 

II.  Language. 

I.  Tenses. 

In  the  New  Testament  generally  tenses  are  employed 
very  much  in  the  same  sense,  and  with  the  same 
general  accuracy,  as  in  other  Greek  authors.  The  so- 
called  "enallage  temporum.,"  or  perpetual  and  convenient 
Hebraism,  has  been  proved  by  the  greatest  Hebrew 
scholars  to  be  no  Hebraism  at  all.  But  it  is  one  of 
the  simple  secrets  of  St.  John's  quiet  thoughtful  power, 
that  he  uses  tenses  with  the  most  rigorous  precision. 

(a)  The  Present  of  continuing  uninterrupted  action, 
e.g.,  i.  8,  ii.  6,  iii.  7,  8,  9. 

Hence  the  so-called  substantized  participle  with  article 
o  has  in  St.  John  the  sense  of  the  continuous  and  con- 
stitutive temper  and  conduct  of  any  man,  the  principle 
of  his  moral  and  spiritual  life — e.g.,  6  Xejcov,  he  who 
is  ever  vaunting,  ii.  4 ;  Tra?  6  fiioMV,  every  one  the 
abiding  principle  of  whose  life  is  hatred,  iii.  15  ;  Tra? 
6  aryairayv,  every  one  the  abiding  principle  of  whose 
life  is  love,  iv.  7. 

The  Infin.  Present  is  generally  used  to  express  an 
action  now  in  course  of  performing  or  continued  in  itself 


THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN.  77 

or  in  its  results,  ox  frequently  repeated — e.g.,  i  John  ii.  6, 
iii.  8,  9,  V.  18.  (Winer,  Gr.  of  N.  T.  Diction,  Part  3, 
xliv.,  348. 

{b)  IheAortsf. 

This  tense  is  generally  used  either  of  a  thing  occur- 
ring only  once,  which  does  not  admit,  or  at  least  does 
not  require,  the  notion  of  continuance  and  perpetuity  ; 
or  of  something  which  is  brief  and  as  it  were  only 
momentary  in  durati'on  (Stallbaum,  P/at.  Enihyd.,  p. 
140).  This  limitation  or  isolation  of  the  predicated 
action  is  most  accurately  indicated  by  the  usual  form 
of  this  tense  in  Greek.  The  aorist  verb  is  encased 
between  the  augment  e-  past  time,  and  the  adjunct  <x- 
future  time,  i.e.,  the  act  is  fixed  off  within  certain  limits 
of  previous  and  consequent  time  (Donaldson,  Gr.  Gr., 
427,  B.  2).  The  aorist  is  used  with  most  significant 
accuracy  in  the  Epistle  of  St.  John,  e.g.,  ii.  6,  1 1,  27, 
iv.  10,  V.  18. 

(c)  The  Perfect. 

The  Perfect  denotes  action  absolutely  past  which 
lasts  on  in  its  effects.  "The  idea  of  completeness 
conveyed  by  the  aorist  must  be  distinguished  from 
that  of  a  state  consequent  on  an  act,  which  is  the 
meaning  of  the  perfect"  (Donaldson,  Gr.  Gr.,  419). 
Careful  observation  of  this  principle  is  the  key  to  some 
of  the  chief  difficulties  of  the  Epistle  (iii.  9,  v.  4,  18). 

(2)  The  form  of  accessional  parallelism  is  to  be 
carefully  noticed.  The  second  member  is  always  in 
advance  of  the  first ;  and  a  third  is  occasionally  intro- 
duced in  advance  of  the  second,  denoting  the  highest 
point  to  which  the  thought  is  thrown  up  by  the  tide  of 
thought,  e.g.,  I  John  ii.  4,  $,  6,  v.  11,  v.  27. 

(3)  The  preparatory  touch  upon  the  chord  which 
announces  a  theme  to  be  amplified  afterwards, — e,g,^^ 


78  GENERAL  RULES  FOR  INTERPRETATION. 


ii.  29,  iii.  9— iv.  7,  v.  3,  4;  iii.  21— v.  14,  ii.  20, 
iii.  24,  iv.  3,  V.  6,  8,  ii.  13,  14,  iv.  4— v.  4,  5. 

(4)  One  secret  of  St.  John's  simple  and  solemn 
rhetoric  consists  in  an  impressive  change  in  the  order  in 
which  a  leading  word  is  used,  e.g.,  i  John  ii.  24,  iv.  20. 

These  principles  carefully  applied  will  be  the  best 
commentary  upon  the  letter  of  the  Apostle,  to  whom 
not  only  when  his  subject  is — 

"De  Deo  Deum  verum 
Alpha  et  Omega,  Patrem  rerum  "  ; 

but  when  he  unfolds  the  principles  of  our  spiritual 
life,  we  may  apply  Adam  of  St.  Victor's  powerful  and 
untranslatable  line, 

"  Solers  scribit  idiota.  * 


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DISCOURSE    I. 

ANALYSIS  AND   THEORY  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL, 
"Of  the  Word  of  Life."— i  John  i.  I. 

IN  the  opening  verses  of  this  Epistle  we  have  a 
sentence  whose  ample  and  prolonged  prelude  has 
but  one  parallel  in  St.  John's  writings.^  It  is,  as  an 
old  divine  says,  "  prefaced  and  brought  in  with  more 
magnificent  ceremony  than  any  passage  in  Scripture." 
The  very  emotion  and  enthusiasm  with  which  it  is 
written,  and  the  sublimity  of  the  exordium  as  a  whole, 
tends  to  make  the  highest  sense  also  the  most  natural 
sense.  Of  what  or  of  whom  does  St.  John  speak  in  the 
phrase  "concerning  the  Lord  of  Life,"  or  "the  Lord 
who  is  the  Life  "  ?  The  neuter  "  that  which  "  is  used 
for  the  masculine — "  He  who  " — according  to  St.  John's 
practice  of  employing  the  neuter  comprehensively  when 
a  collective  whole  is  to  be  expressed.  The  phrase 
"  from  the  beginning,"  taken  by  itself,  might  no  doubt 
be  employed  to  signify  the  beginning  of  Christianity, 
or  of  the  ministry  of  Christ.  But  even  viewing  it 
as  entirely  isolated  from  its  context  of  language  and 
circumstance,  it  has  a  greater  claim  to  be  looked  upon 
as  from  eternity  or  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation. 

•  See  the  noble  and  enthusiastic  preface  to  the  washing  of  the 
disciples'  feet  (John  xiii.  I,  2,  3). 


i.  I.]  ANALYSIS  OF  ST.  JOrlN'S  GOSPEL.  8l 

Other  considerations  are  decisive  in  favour  of  the  last 
interpretation. 

(l)  We  have  already  adverted  to  the  lofty  and  trans- 
cendental tone  of  the  whole  passage,  elevating  as  it 
does  each  clause  by  the  irresistible  upward  tendency 
of  the  whole  sentence.  The  climax  and  resting  place 
cannot  stop  short  of  the  bosom  of  God.  (2)  But  again, 
we  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  Epistle  is  every- 
where to  be  read  with  the  Gospel  before  us,  and  the 
language  of  the  Epistle  to  be  connected  with  that  of  the 
Gospel.  The  prooemium  of  the  Epistle  is  the  subjective 
version  of  the  objective  historical  point  of  view  which 
we  find  at  the  close  of  the  preface  to  the  Gospel. 
"The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us;" 
so  St.  John  begins  his  sentence  in  the  Gospel  with 
a  statement  of  an  historical  fact.  But  he  proceeds, 
"  and'we  delightedly  beheld  His  glory ; "  that  is  a  state- 
ment of  the  personal  impression  attested  by  his  own 
consciousness  and  that  of  other  witnesses.  But  let 
us  note  carefully  that  in  the  Epistle,  which  is  in 
subjective  relation  to  the  Gospel,  this  process  is  exactly 
reversed.  The  Apostle  begins  with  the  personal  im- 
pression ;  pauses  to  affirm  the  reality  of  the  many 
proofs  in  the  realm  of  fact  of  that  which  produced 
this  impression  through  the  senses  upon  the  concep- 
tions and  emotions  of  those  who  were  brought  into 
contact  with  the  Saviour ;  and  then  returns  to  the 
subjective  impression  from  which  he  had  originally 
started.  (3)  Much  of  the  language  in  this  passage  is 
inconsistent  with  our  understanding  by  the  Word  the 
first  announcement  of  the  Gospel  preaching.  One 
might  of  course  speak  of  hearing  the  commencement 
of  the  Gospel  message,  but  surely  not  of  seeing  and 
handling  it.    (4)  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  Gospel 

6 


82  AN'ALYSIS  AND    THEORY  OF 

and  the  Apocalypse  begin  with  the  mention  of  the 
personal  Word.  This  may  well  lead  us  to  expect  that 
Logos  should  be  used  in  the  same  sense  in  the  prooemium 
of  the  great  Epistle  by  the  same  author. 

We  conclude  then  that  when  St.  John  here  speaks 
of  the  Word  of  Life,  he  refers  to  something  higher 
again  than  the  preaching  of  life,  and  that  he  has  in 
view  both  the  manifestation  of  the  life  which  has  taken 
place  in  our  humanity,  and  Him  who  is  personally  at 
once  the  Word  and  the  Life.^  The  prooemium  may  be 
thus  paraphrased.  "That  which  in  all  its  collective 
influence  was  from  the  beginning  as  understood  by 
Moses,  by  Solomon,  and  Micah;^  which  we  have  first 
and  above  all  heard  in  divinely  human  utterances,  but 
which  we  have  also  seen  with  these  very  eyes  ;  which 
we  gazed  upon  with  the  full  and  entranced  sight  that 
delights  in  the  object  contemplated ;  ^  and  which  these 
hands  handled  reverentially  at  His  bidding.*  I  speak 
all  this  concerning  the  Word  who  is  also  the 
Life." 

Tracts  and  sheets  are  often  printed  in  our  day  with 
anthologies    of  texts  which    are   supposed    tc    contain 


*  The  phrase  probably  means  the  Logos,  the  Personal  "WDrd  who 
is  at  once  both  the  Word  and  the  Lite."  F"or  the  double  genitive,  the 
second  almost  appositional  to  the  first,  conf.  John  ii.  21,  xi.  13. 
This  interpretation  would  seem  to  be  that  of  Chrysostom.  "If  then 
the  Word  is  the  Life ;  and  if  this  Christ  who  is  at  once  the  Word 
and  the  Life  became  flesh ;  then  the  Life  became  flesh."  (/«  Joan. 
Evartg.  V.) 

^  Gen.  i.  I ;  Prov.  viii.  23 ;  Micah  v.  2. 

*  Cf.  John  vi.  36,  40.  The  word  is  applied  by  the  angel  to  the 
disciples  gazing  on  the  Ascension,  Acts  i.  ll.  The  Transfiguration 
may  be  here  referred  to.  Such  an  incident  as  that  in  John  vii.  37 
attests  a  vivid  delighted  remembrance  of  the  Savlrui's  very  attitude. 

*  Luke  xxiv.  39  ;  John  xx.  27. 


i.  I.]  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL.  83 

the  very  essence  of  the  Gospel.  But  the  sweetest  scents, 
it  is  said,  are  not  distilled  exclusively  from  flowers,  for 
the  flower  is  but  an  exhalation.  The  seeds,  the  leaf, 
the  stem,  the  very  bark  should  be  macerated,  because 
they  contain  the  odoriferous  substance  in  minute  sacs.' 
So  the  purest  Christian  doctrine  is  distilled,  not  only 
from  a  few  exquisite  flowers  in  a  textual  anthology, 
but  from  the  whole  substance,  so  to  speak,  of  the 
message.  Now  it  will  be  observed  that  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Epistle  which  accompanied  the  fourth 
Gospel,  our  attention  is  directed  not  to  a  sentiment, 
but  to  a  fact  and  to  a  Person.  In  the  collections  of 
texts  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  we  should 
probably  never  find  two  brief  passages  which  may  not 
unjustly  be  considered  to  concentrate  the  essence  of 
the  scheme  of  salvation  more  nearly  than  any  others. 
"The  Word  w^as  made  flesh."  "  Concerning  the  Word 
of  Life  (and  that  Life  was  once  manifested,  and  we 
have  seen  and  consequently  are  witnesses  and  announce 
to  3'ou  from  Him  who  sent  us  that  Life,  that  eternal 
Life  whose  it  is  to  have  been  in  eternal  relation  with 
the  Father,  and  manifested  to  us)  ;  That  which  we  have 
seen  and  heard  declare  we  from  Him  who  sent  us  unto 
you,  to  the  end  that  you  too  may  have  fellowship  with 
us." 

It  would  be  disrespectful  to  the  theologian  of  the 
New  Testament  to  pass  by  the  great  dogmatic  term 
never,  so  far  as  we  are  told,  applied  by  our  Lord  to 
Himself,  but  with  which  St.  John  begins  each  of  his 
three  principal  writings — The  Word.^ 

Such  mountains  of  erudition  have  been  heaped  over 
this   term   that  it  has  become  difficult  to  discover  the 

'  Gospel  i.  1-14;  I  John  i.  I ;  Apoc.  i.  9. 


84  ANALYSIS  AND   THEORY  OF 

buried  thought.  The  Apostle  adopted  a  word  which 
was  already  in  use  in  various  quarters  simply  because 
if,  from  the  nature  of  the  case  necessarily  inadequate/ 
it  was  yet  more  suitable  than  any  other.  He  also,  as 
profound  ancient  thinkers  conceived,  looked  into  the 
depths  of  the  human  mind,  into  the  first  principles 
of  that  which  is  the  chief  distinction  of  man  from 
the  lower  creation — language.  The  human  word,  these 
thinkers  taught,  is  twofold  ;  inner  and  outer — now  as  the 
manifestation  to  the  mind  itself  of  unuttered  thought, 
now  as  a  part  of  language  uttered  to  others.  The 
word  as  signifying  unuttered  thought,  the  mould  in 
which  it  exists  in  the  mind,  illustrates  the  eternal  re- 
lation of  the  Father  to  the  Son.  The  word  as  signifying 
uttered  thought  illustrates  the  relation  as  conveyed  to 
man  by  the  Incarnation.  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time;  the  only  begotten  God  which  is  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Father  He  interpreted  Him."  For  the  theologian 
of  the  Church  Jesus  is  thus  the  Word ;  because  He 
had  His  being  from  the  Father  in  a  way  which 
presents  some  analogy  to  the  human  word,  which  is 
sometimes  the  inner  vesture,  sometimes  the  outward 
utterance  of  thought — sometimes  the  human  thought 
in  that  language  without  which  man  cannot  think, 
sometimes  the  speech  whereby  the  speaker  interprets 
it  to  others.  Christ  is  the  Word  Whom  out  of  the 
fulness   of    His   thought   and   being   the   Father   has 

'  "  He  hath  a  name  written  which  no  one  knoweth  but  He  Himselff 
— and  His  name  is  called  The  Word  of  God"  (Apoc.  xix.  12,  13). 
Gibbons' adroit  italics  may  here  be  noted.  "The  Logos,  taught  in  the 
school  of  Alexandria  before  Christ  lOO — revealed  to  the  Apostle 
St.  John,  Anno  Domini,  97  "  {Decline  and  Fall,  ch.  xxi.).  Just  so  very 
probably — though  whether  St.  John  ever  read  a  page  of  Philo  or  Plato 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing 


i.  I.]  ST.  JOHNS  GOSPEL.  85 

eternally  inspoken  and  outspoken  into  personal  ex- 
istence.^ 

One  too  well  knows  that  such  teaching  as  this  runs 
the  risk  of  appearing  uselessly  subtle  and  technical, 
but  its  practical  value  will  appear  upon  reflection.  Be- 
cause it  gives  us  possession  of  the  point  of  view  from 
which  St.  John  himself  surveys,  and  from  which  he 
would  have  the  Church  contemplate,  the  history  of  the 
life  of  our  Lord.  And  indeed  for  that  life  the  theology 
of  the  Word,  i.e.,  of  the  Incarnation,  is  simply  necessary. 

For  we  must  agree  with  M.  Renan  so  far  at  least 
as  this,  that  a  great  life,  even  as  the  world  counts 
greatness,  is  an  organic  whole  with  an  underlying 
vitalising  idea;  which  must  be  construed  as  such,  and 
cannot  be  adequately  rendered  by  a  mere  narration  of 
facts.  Without  this  unifying  principle  the  facts  will 
be  not  only  incoherent  but  inconsistent.  There  must 
be  a  point  of  view   from   which  we  can  embrace  the 

'  The  following  table  may  be  found  useful : — 

THE  WORD   IN   ST.   JOHN   IS   OPPOSED. 

(A)  To  the  Gnostic  Word,  (A)    Uncreated     and    Eternal. 

created  and  temporal     as  "  In    the   beginning  was 

the  Word." 

(B)  To  the  Platonic  Word,  (B)    Personal       and      Divine. 

ideal  and  abstract     as  "  The    Word    was    God." 

"  He  "— "  His." 

(C)  To  the  Judaistic  and  Phi-  (C)  Creative   and  First  Cause. 

Ionic    Word  —  the     type  ^               "  All   things   were   made 

and     idea     of     God     in  by  Him." 
creation    .... 

(D)  To   Ihe  Dualistic  Word —  (D)    Unique    and    Universally 

limitedly     and     partially     ^g  Creative.    "Without  Him 

instrumental  in  creation  .  was  not    anything    made 

that  hath  been  made." 

(E)  To    the    Doketic    Word—  (E)  Real  and  Permanent.    "The 

impalpable  and  visionary  Word  became  flesh." 


86  ANALYSIS  AND   THEORY  OF 

life  as  one.  The  great  test  here,  as  in  art,  is  the 
formation  of  a  living,  consistent,  unmutilated  whole.  ^ 

Thus  a  general  point  of  view  (if  we  are  to  use  modern 
language  easily  capable  of  being  misunderstood  we 
must  say  a  theory)  is  wanted  of  the  Person,  the  work, 
the  character  of  Christ.  The  synoptical  Evangelists 
had  furnished  the  Church  with  the  narrative  of  His 
earthly  origin.  St.  John  in  his  Gospel  and  Epistle, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  endowed  it  with  the 
theory  of  His  Person. 

Other  points  of  view  have  been  adopted,  from  the 
heresies  of  the  early  ages  to  the  speculations  of  our 
own.  AH  but  St.  John's  have  failed  to  co-ordinate  the 
elements  of  the  problem.  The  earlier  attempts  essayed 
to  read  the  history  upon  the  assumption  that  He  was 
merely  human  or  merely  divine.  They  tried  in  their 
weary  round  to  unhumanise  or  undeify  the  God-Man, 
to  degrade  the  perfect  Deity,  to  mutilate  the  perfect 
Humanity — to  present  to  the  adoration  of  mankind  a 
something  neither  entirely  human  nor  entirely  divine, 
but  an  impossible  mixture  of  the  two.  The  truth  on 
these  momentous  subjects  was  fused  under  the  fires  of 
controversy.  The  last  centuries  have  produced  theories 
less  subtle  and  metaphysical,  but  bolder  and  more 
blasphemous.  Some  have  looked  upon  Him  as  a 
pretender  or  an  enthusiast.  But  the  depth  and  sobriety 
of  His  teaching  upon  ground  where  we  are  able  to  test 
it — the  texture  of  circumstantial  word  and  work  which 
will  bear  to  be  inspected  under  any  microscope  or 
cross-examined  by  any  prosecutor — have  almost 
shamed  such  blasphemy  into  respectful  silence.  Others 
of  later  date  admit  with  patronising  admiration  that 

•  Vie  de  Jesus,  Int.  4, 


i.  I.]  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL.  87 

the  martyr  of  Calvary  is  a  saint  of  transcendent  ex- 
cellence. But  if  He  who  called  Himself  Son  of  God 
was  not  much  more  than  saint,  He  was  something  less. 
Indeed  He  would  have  been  something  of  three  cha- 
racters ;  saint,  visionary,  pretender — at  moments  the 
Son  of  God  in  His  elevated  devotion,  at  other  times 
condescending  to  something  of  the  practice  of  the 
charlatan.  His  unparalleled  presumption  only  excused 
by  His  unparalleled  success. 

Now  the  point  of  view  taken  by  St.  John  is  the  only 
one  which  is  possible  or  consistent — the  only  one  which 
reconciles  the  humiliation  and  the  glory  recorded  in 
the  Gospels,  which  harmonises  the  otherwise  insoluble 
contradictions  that  beset  His  Person  and  His  work. 
One  after  another,  to  the  question,  "  what  think  ye  of 
Christ  ? "  answers  are  attempted,  sometim.es  angry, 
sometimes  sorrowful,  always  confused.  The  frank 
respectful  bewilderment  of  the  better  Socinianism,  the 
gay  brilliance  of  French  romance,  the  heavy  insolence 
of  German  criticism,  have  woven  their  revolting  or 
perplexed  christologies.  The  Church  still  points  with 
a  confidence,  which  only  deepens  as  the  ages  pass,  to 
the  enunciation  of  the  theory  of  the  Saviour's  Person 
by  St.  John — in  his  Gospel,  "  The  Word  was  made 
flesh  " — in  his  Epistle,  "  concerning  the  Word  of  Life." 


DISCOURSE   II. 

ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL. 
"That  which  we  have  heard." — I  John  i.  i. 

OUR  argument  so  far  has  been  that  St.  John's 
Gospel  is  dominated  by  a  central  idea  and  by  a 
theory  which  harmonises  the  great  and  many-sided 
life  which  it  contains,  and  which  is  repeated  again  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Epistle  in  a  form  analogous  to 
that  in  which  it  had  been  cast  in  the  prooemium  of  the 
Gospel — allowing  for  the  difference  between  a  history 
and  a  document  of  a  more  subjective  character  moulded 
upon  that  history. 

There  is  one  objection  to  the  accuracy,  almost  to  the 
veracity,  of  a  life  written  from  such  a  theory  or  point 
of  view.  It  may  disdain  to  be  shackled  by  the  bondage 
of  facts.  It  may  become  an  essay  in  which  possibilities 
and  speculations  are  mistaken  for  actual  events,  and 
history  is  superseded  by  metaphysics.  It  may  de- 
generate into  a  romance  or  prose-poem  ;  if  the  subject 
is  religious,  into  a  mystic  effusion.  In  the  case  of  the 
fourth  Gospel  the  cycles  in  which  the  narrative  moves, 
the  unveiling  as  of  the  progress  of  a  drama,  are  thought 
by  some  to  confirm  the  suspicion  awakened  by  the  point 
of  view  given  in  its  prooemium,  and  in  the  opening  of 
the  Epistle.  The  Gospel,  it  is  said,  is  ideological.  To 
us  it  appears  that  those  who  have  entered  most  deeply 
into  the  spirit  of  St.  John  will  most  deeply  feci  the 


I  I.]        ST.   JOHN'S  GOSPEL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  89 

significance  of  the  two  words  which  we  place  at  the 
head  of  this  discourse — "  which  we  have  heard," 
"which  we  have  seen  with  our  very  eyes,"  (which  we 
contemplated  with  entranced  gaze)  "  which  our  hands 
have  handled." 

More  truly  than  any  other,  St.  John  could  say  of 
this  letter  in  the  words  of  an  American  poet : 

"This  is  not  a  book— It  is  1 1 " 

In  one  so  true,  so  simple,  so  profound,  so  oracular, 
there  is  a  special  reason  for  this  prolonged  appeal  to 
the  senses,  and  for  the  place  which  is  assigned  to  each. 
In  the  fact  that  hearing  stands  first,  there  is  a  reference 
to  one  characteristic  of  that  Gospel  to  which  the  Epistle 
throughout  refers.  Beyond  the  synoptical  Evangelists, 
St.  John  records  the  words  of  Jesus.  The  position  which 
hearing  holds  in  the  sentence,  above  and  prior  to  sight 
and  /?fl;^fl'//«^,  indicates  the  reverential  estimation  in  which 
the  Apostle  held  his  Master's  teaching.^  The  expression 
places  us  on  solid  historical  ground,  because  it  is  a 
moral  demonstration  that  one  like  St.  John  would  not 
have  dared  to  invent  whole  discourses  and  place  them 
in  the  lips  of  Jesus.  Thus  in  the  "w^  have  heard" 
there  is  a  guarantee  of  the  sincerity  of  the  report  of 
the  discourses,  which  forms  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  narrative  that  it  practically  guarantees  the  whole 
Gospel. 

On  this  accusation  of  ideology  against  St.  John's 
Gospel,  let  us  make  a  further  remark  founded  upon 
the  Epistle. 

'  The  appeal  to  the  senses  of  seeing  and  hearing  is  a  trait  common 
to  all  the  group  of  St.  John's  writings  (John  i.  14,  xix.  35;  i  John  i. 
1,  2,  iv.  14;  Apoc.  i.  2).  The  true  reading  ((cd7w  '\<js6.vvr\%  6  aKoduv 
Kal  /SXtTTWJ'  ravra.  Apoc.  xxi.  8,  where  hearing  stands  before  seeing) 
is  indicative  of  John's  style. 


90  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

It  is  said  that  the  Gospel  systematically  subordinates 
chronological  order  and  historical  sequence  of  facts  to 
the  necessity  imposed  by  the  theory  of  the  Word  which 
stands  in  the  forefront  of  the  Epistle  and  Gospel. 

But  mystic  ideology,  indifference  to  historical  vera- 
city as  compared  with  adherence  to  a  conception  or 
theory,  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  that  strong, 
simple,  severe  appeal  to  the  validity  of  the  historical 
principle  of  belief  upon  sufficient  evidence  which  per- 
vades St.  John's  writings.  His  Gospel  is  a  tissue  woven 
of  many  lines  of  evidence.  "Witness"  stands  in  almost 
every  page  of  that  Gospel,  and  indeed  is  found  there 
nearly  as  often  as  in  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  word  occurs  ten  times  in  five  short 
Verses  of  the  Epistle.^  There  is  no  possibility  of  mis- 
taking this  prolixity  of  reiteration  in  a  writer  so  simple 
and  so  sincere  as  our  Apostle.  The  theologian  is  an 
historian.  He  has  no  intention  of  sacrificing  history 
to  dogma,  and  no  necessity  for  doing  so.  His  theory, 
and  that  alone,  harmonises  his  facts.  His  facts  have 
passed  in  the  domain  of  human  history,  and  have 
had  that  evidence  of  witness  which  proves  that  they 
did  so. 

A  few  of  the  stories  of  the  earliest  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity have  ever  been  repeated,  and  rightly  so,  as 
affording  the  most  beautiful  illustrations  of  St.  John's 
character,  the  most  simple  and  truthful  idea  of  the 
impression  left  by  his  character  and  his  work.  His 
tender  love  for  souls,  his  deathless  desire  to  promote 
mutual  love  among  his  people,  are  enshrined  in  two 
anecdotes  which  the  Church  has  never  forgotten.  It 
has  scarcely  been  noticed  that  a  tradition  of  not  much 

'  I  John  V.  6-12. 


i.  I.]  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  91 

later  date  (at  least  as  old  as  Tertullian,  born  a.d.  90) 
credits  St.  John  with  a  stern  reverence  for  the  accuracy 
of  historical  truth,  and  tells  us  what,  in  the  estimation 
of  those  who  were  near  him  in  time,  the  Apostle  thought 
of  the  lawfulness  of  ideological  religious  romance.  It 
was  said  that  a  presbyter  of  Asia  Minor  confessed  that 
he  was  the  author  of  certain  apocryphal  Acts  of  Paul 
and  Thecla — probably  the  same  strange  but  unquestion- 
ably very  ancient  document  with  the  same  title  which 
is  still  preserved.  The  man's  motive  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  selfish.  His  work  was  apparently  the 
composition  of  an  ardent  and  romantic  nature  passion- 
ately attracted  by  a  saint  so  wonderful  as  St.  Paul.^ 
The  tradition  went  on  to  assert  that  St.  John  without 
hesitation  degraded  this  clerical  romance-writer  from 
his  ministry.  But  the  offence  of  the  Asiatic  presbyter 
would  have  been  hght  indeed  compared  with   that  of 

'  That  the  "Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla"  are  of  high  antiquity  there 
can  be  no  rationardoubt.  Tertullian  writes  :  "  But  if  those  who  read 
St.  Paul's  writings  rashly  use  the  example  of  Thecla,  to  give  licence  to 
women  to  teach  and  baptize  publicly,  let  them  know  that  a  presbyter 
of  Asia  Minor,  who  put  together  that  piece,  crowning  it  with  the 
authority  of  a  Pauline  title,  convicted  by  his  own  confession  of  doing 
this  from  love  of  St.  Paul,  was  deprived  of  his  orders."  (Tertullian, 
De  Baptismo,  xvii.)  On  which  St.  Jerome  remarks — "  We  therefore 
relegate  to  the  class  of  apocryphal  writings,  the  nepioSis  of  Paul 
and  Thecla,  and  the  whole  fable  of  the  baptized  lion.  For  how  could 
it  be  that  the  sole  real  companion  of  the  Apostle  "  (Luke)  "while  so 
well  acquainted  with  the  rest  of  the  history,  should  have  known 
nothing  of  this?  And  further,  Tertullian,  who  touched  so  nearly 
upon  those  times,  records  that  a  certain  presbyter  in  Asia  Minor, 
convicted  before  John  of  being  the  author  of  that  book,  and  con- 
fessing that  as  a  ffirovSaffrris  of  the  Apostle  Paul  he  had  done  this 
from  loving  devotion  to  that  great  memory,  was  deposed  from  his 
ministry."  (St.  Hieron.,  de  Sciipt  Eccles.,  VII.)  See  the  mass  of 
authority  for  the  antiquity  of  this  document,  which  gives  a  consider- 
able degree  of  probability  to  the  statement  about  St.  John,  in  Acta 
Apost.  Apoc,  Edit.  Tischendorf. — Proleg.  xxi.,  xxvi. 


92  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

the  mendacious  Evangelist,  who  could  have  deliberately 
fabricated  discourses  and  narrated  miracles  which  he 
dared  to  attribute  to  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God.  The 
guilt  of  publishing  to  the  Church  apocryphal  Acts  of 
Paul  and  Thecla  would  have  paled  before  the  crimson 
sin  of  forging  a  GospeL 

These  considerations  upon  St.  John's  prolonged  and 
circumstantial  claim  to  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
Word  made  flesh,  confirmed  by  every  avenue  of  com- 
munication between  man  and  man — and  first  in  order 
by  the  hearing  of  that  sweet  yet  awful  teaching — point 
to  the  fourth  Gospel  again  and  again.  And  the  simple 
'assertion — "that  which  we  have  heard" — accounts  for 
one  characteristic  of  the  fourth  Gospel  which  would 
otherwise  be  a  perplexing  enigma — its  dramatic  vivid- 
ness and  consistency. 

This  dramatic  truth  of  St.  John's  narrative,  manifested 
in  various  developments,  deserves  careful  consideration. 
There  are  three  notes  in  the  fourth  Gospel  which 
indicate  either  a  consummate  dramatic  instinct  or  a 
most  faithful  record,  (i)  The  delineation  of  individual 
characfcrs.  The  Evangelist  tells  us  with  no  unmeaning 
distinction,  that  Jesus  "  knew  all  men,  and  knew  what 
is  in  man  1 "  ^  For  some  persons  take  an  apparently 
profound  view  of  human  nature  in  the  abstract.  They 
pass  for  being  sages  so  long  as  they  confine  themselves 
to  sounding  generalizations,  but  they  are  convicted  on 
the  field  of  life  and  experience.  They  claim  to  know 
what  is  in  man  ;  but  they  know  it  vaguely,  as  one  might 
be  in  possession  of  the  outlines  of  a  map,  yet  totally 
ignorant  of  most  places  within  its  limits.  Others,  who 
mostly  affect  to  be  keen  men  of  the  world,  refrain  from 

"  John  iii.  24,  25. 


i.  I.]  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  93 


generalizations ;  but  they  have  an  insight,  which  at 
times  is  startling,  into  the  characters  of  the  individual 
men  who  cross  their  path.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
they  superficially  seem  to  know  all  men,  but  their 
knowledge  after  all  is  capricious  and  limited.  One 
class  affects  to  know  men,  but  does  not  even  affect 
to  know  man  ;  the  other  class  knows  something  about 
man,  but  is  lost  in  the  infinite  variety  of  the  world  of 
real  men.  Our  Lord  knew  both — both  the  abstract  ulti- 
mate principles  of  human  nature  and  the  subtle  distinc- 
tions which  mark  off  every  human  character  from  every 
other.  Of  this  peculiar  knowledge  he  who  was  brought 
into  the  most  intimate  communion  with  the  Great 
Teacher  was  made  in  some  degree  a  partaker  in  the 
course  of  His  earthly  ministry.  With  how  i^^  touches 
yet  how  clearly  are  delineated  the  Baptist,  Nathanael, 
the  Samaritan  woman,  the  blind  man,  Philip,  Thomas, 
Martha  and  Mary,  Pilate !  (2)  More  particularly  the 
appropriateness  and  consistency  of  the  language  used  by 
the  various  persons  introduced  in  the  narrative  is,  in 
the  case  of  a  writer  like  St.  John,  a  multiplied  proof 
of  historical  veracit3\^      For  instance,  of  St.  Thomas 

ThoFe  who  are  perplexed  by  the  identity  in  style  and  turn  of 
language  between  the  Epistle  and  the  discourse  of  our  Lord  in 
St.  John's  Gospel  may  be  referred  to  the  writer's  remarks  in  The 
Speakei's  Conimeniary  (N.  T.  iv.  .  286-S9).  It  should  be  added 
that  the  Epp.  to  the  Seven  Churches  (Apoc.  ii.,  iii.) — especially  to 
Snrdis— interweave  sayings  of  Jesus  recorded  by  the  Synoptical 
et'angelists  (e.g.,  "as  a  thief,"  Apoc.  iii.  3,  cf  Mark  xiii.  37;  "book 
of  life,"  Apoc.  iii.  5«  cf.  Luke  x,  20;  "confessing  a  name,"  Apoc.  iii. 
5,  cf.  Matt.  X.  32;  "He  that  hath  an  ear,"  Apoc.  iii.  6,  13,  22,  and 
ii.  7,  II,  17,  29.  This  phrase,  found  in  each  of  the  seven  Epp.,  occurs 
nowhere  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  but  constantly  in  the  Synoptics.  Cf. 
Matt.  X.  27,  xi.  15,  xiii.  19,  43  ;  Mark  iv.  9,  23,  vii.  16;  Luke  viii.  8,  xiv. 
35  ;  cf.  also  "giving  power  over  the  nations  "  (Apoc.  ii.  26— with  the 
conception  in  Malt.  xix.  28 ;  Luke  xxii,  29,  30.     If  the  author  of  the 


94  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

only  one  single  sentence,  containing  seven  words,  is 
preserved,^  outside  the  memorable  narrative  in  the 
twentieth  chapter;  yet  how  unmistakably  does  that 
brief  sentence  indicate  the  same  character — tender, 
impetuous,  loving,  yet  ever  inclined  to  take  the  darker 
view  of  things  because  from  the  very  excess  of  its 
affection  it  cannot  believe  in  that  which  it  most  desires, 
and  demands  accumulated  and  convincing  proof  of  its 
owr.  happiness.  Further,  the  language  of  our  Lord 
which  St.  John  preserves  is  both  morally  and  intel- 
lectually a  marvellous  witness  to  the  proof  of  his 
assertion  here  in  the  outset  of  his  Epistle. 

This  may  be  exemplified  by  an  illustration  from 
modern  literature.  Victor  Hugo,  in  his  Le'gende  des 
Siecles,  has  in  one  passage  only  placed  in  our  Lord's 
lips  a  few  words  which  are  not  found  in  the  Evangelist.* 
Every  one  will  at  once  feel  that  these  words  ring  hollow, 
that  there  is  in  them  something  exaggerated  and  facti- 
tious— and  /Aa/ although  the  dramatist  had  the  advantage 
of  having  a  type  of  style  already  constructed  for  him. 
People  talk  as  if  the  representation  in  detail  of  a 
perfect  character  were  a  comparatively  easy  performance. 
Yet  every  such  representation  shows  some  flaw  when 

fourth  Gospel  was  also  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse,  his  choice  of 
tlie  style  which  he  attributes  to  the  Saviour  was  at  least  decided  by 
no  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  Synoptical  type  of  expression,  and  by 
no  incapacity  to  use  it  with  freedom  and  power. 
*  John  xi.  i6. 

*    "  Qui  me  suit,  aux  anges  est  pareil. 
Quand  un  homme  a  marche  tout  le  jour  au  soleil 
Dans  un  chemin  sans  puits  et  sans  hotellerie, 
S'il  ne  croit  pas  quand  vient  le  soir  il  pleure,  il  crie^ 
II  est  las;  sur  la  terre  il  tombe  haletant. 
S'il  croit  en  moi,  qu'il  prie,  il  peut  au  mcme  instant. 
Continuer  sa  route  avec  des  forces  triples." 

{^Le  Christ  et  le  Tombeau. )     Tom.  i.  44. 


1. 1.]  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  95 

closely  inspected.  For  instance,  a  character  in  which 
Shakespeare  so  evidently  delighted  as  Buckingham, 
whose  end  is  so  noble  and  martyr-like,  is  thus  described, 
when  on  his  trial,  by  a  sympathising  witness : 

"  '  How  did  he  bear  himself? ' 
'  When  he  was  bought  again  to  the  bar,  to  hear, 
His  knell  rung  out,  his  judgment,  he  was  struck 
With  such  an  agony,  he  sweat  extremely. 
And  something  spoke  in  choler,  ill  and  hasty ; 
But  he  fell  to  himself  again,  and  sweetly 
In  all  the  rest  show'd  a  most  noble  patience.'"* 

Our  argument  comes  to  this  point.  Here  is  one  man 
of  all  but  the  highest  rank  in  dramatic  genius,  who 
utterly  fails  to  invent  even  one  sentence  which  could 
possibly  be  taken  for  an  utterance  of  our  Lord.  Here 
is  another,  the  most  transcendent  in  the  same  order 
whom  the  human  race  has  ever  known,  who  tacitly 
confesses  the  impossibility  of  representing  a  character 
which  shall  be  "  one  entire  and  perfect  chrysolite," 
without  speck  or  flaw.  Take  yet  another  instance.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  appeals  for  "  the  fair  licence  due  to  the 
author  of  a  fictitious  composition ; "  and  admits  that  he 
"  cannot  pretend  to  the  observation  of  complete  accuracy 
even  in  outward  costume,  much  less  in  the  more 
important  points  of  language  and  manners."^  But 
St.  John  was  evidently  a  man  of  no  such  pretensions 
as  these  kings  of  the  human  imagination — no  Scott 
or  Victor  Hugo,  much  less  a  Shakespeare.     How  then 

'  King  Henry  VIII.,  Act  2,  Sc.  I.  Contrast  again  our  Lord 
before  the  council  with  St.  Paul  before  that  tribunal.  In  the  case 
of  one  of  the  chief  of  saints  there  is  the  touch  of  human  infirmity, 
the  "something  spoken  in  choler,  ill  and  hasty,"  the  angry  and 
contemptuous  "whited  wall" — the  confession  of  hasty  inconsiderate- 
ness  (oy/c  ydeiv—oTi  €<tt\v  dpxtepeijs)  which  led  to  a  violation  of  a 
precept  of  the  law  (Exod.  xxii,  28). 

*  Preface  to  Ivanhoe. 


96  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

— except  on  the  assumption  of  his  being  a  faithful 
reporter,  of  his  recording  words  actually  spoken,  and 
witnessing  incidents  which  he  had  seen  with  his  very 
eyes  and  contemplated  with  loving  and  admiring  rever- 
ence— can  we  account  for  his  having  given  us  long 
successions  of  sentences,  continuous  discourses  in 
which  we  trace  a  certain  unity  and  adaptation ;  ^  and  a 
character  which  stands  alone  among  all  recorded  in 
history  or  conceived  in  fiction,  by  presenting  to  us 
an  excellence  faultless  in  every  detail  ?  We  assert 
that  the  one  answer  to  this  question  is  boldly  given 
us  by  St.  John  in  the  forefront  of  his  Epistle — "  That 
which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes — concerning  the  Word  who  is  the  Life — declare 
we  unto  you." 

St.  John's  mode  of  writing  history  may  profitably  be 
contrasted  with  that  of  one  who  in  his  own  line  was 
a  great  master,  as  it  has  been  ably  criticised  by  a  dis- 
tinguished statesman.  Voltaire's  historical  masterpiece 
is  a  portion  of  the  life  of  Maria  Theresa,  which  is  un- 

'  How  the  great  sayings  were  accurately  collected  has  not  been 
the  question  before  us  in  this  discourse.  But  it  presents  little  diffi- 
culty. It  is  not  absurd  to  suppose  (if  we  are  required  to  postulate 
no  divine  assistance)  that  notes  may  have  been  taken  in  some  form 
by  certain  members  of  the  company  of  disciples.  The  profoundly 
thoughtful  remark  of  Irenaeus  upon  his  own  unfailing  recollection  of 
early  lessons  from  Polycarp,  would  apply  with  indefinitely  greater 
force  to  such  a  pupil  as  John,  of  such  a  teacher  as  Jesus.  "  I  can 
thoroughly  recollect  things  so  far  back  better  than  those  which  have 
lately  occurred  ;  for  lessons  which  have  grown  with  us  since  boyhood 
are  compacted  into  a  unity  with  the  very  soul  itself"  (r^  ^1^X17  ivovvrat, 
aCry)  Etiseb.,  v.  29.  But  above  all,  whatever  subordinate  agency  may 
have  been  employed  in  the  preservation  of  those  precious  words, 
every  Christian  reverently  acknowledges  the  fulfilment  of  the  Saviour's 
promise — "The  Comforter,  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  shall  teach  you  all 
things,  and  bring  all  things  to  j'our  remembrance  whatsoever  I  have 
said  unto  you  "  (John  xiv.  26). 


i.  I.]  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  97 

questionably  written  from  a  partly  ideological  point  of 
view.  For,  those  who  have  patience  to  go  back  to  the 
"  sources,"  and  to  compare  Voltaire's  narrative  with 
them,  will  see  the  process  by  which  a  literary  master 
has  produced  his  effect.  The  writer  works  as  if  he 
were  composing  a  classical  tragedy  restricted  to  the 
unities  of  time  and  place.  The  three  days  of  the 
coronation  and  of  the  successive  votes  are  brought 
into  one  effect,  of  which  we  are  made  to  feel  that  it 
is  due  to  a  magic  inspiration  of  Maria  Theresa.  Yet,  as 
the  great  historical  critic  to  whom  we  refer  proceeds 
to  demonstrate,  a  different  charm,  very  much  more 
real  because  it  comes  from  truth,  may  be  found  in 
literal  historical  accuracy  without  this  academic  rouge. 
Writers  more  conscientious  than  Voltaire  would  not 
have  assumed  that  Maria  Theresa  was  degraded  by  a 
husband  who  was  inferior  to  her.  They  would  not 
have  substituted  some  pretty  and  pretentious  phrases 
for  the  genuine  emotion  not  quite  veiled  under  the 
official  Latin  of  the  Queen.  "  However  high  a  thing 
art  may  be,  reality,  truth,  which  is  the  work  of  God,  is 
higher ! "  ^  It  is  this  conviction,  this  entire  intense 
adhesion  to  truth,  this  childlike  ingenuousness  which 
has  made  St.  John  as  an  historian  attain  the  higher 
region  which  is  usually  reached  by  genius  alone — 
which  has  given  us  narratives  and  passages  whose 
ideal  beauty  or  awe  is  so  transcendent  or  solemn, 
whose  pictorial  grandeur  or  pathos  is  so  inexhaust- 
ible, whose  philosophical  depth  is  so  unfathomable.' 
He  stands  with  spell-bcund  delight  before  his  work 


'  Due  de  Broglie.     Revue  des  deux  Mondes.     15  Jan.  1882.     Coxe, 
House  of  Austria,  vol.  iii.,  chap,  xcix.,  p.  415,  sqq. 
*  John  xiii.  30,  xi.  35,  xix.  5,  xkii.  29-35. 


98  Sr.  lOHN'S  GOSPEL 

without  the  disappointment  which  ever  attends  upon 
men  of  genius ;  because  that  work  is  not  drawn  from 
himself,  because  he  can  say  three  words — which  we 
have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  which 
we  have  gazed  uDon, 

NOTES. 
Ch.  i.  2,  4. 

Ver.  2.  Us,  we."]  "  The  nominative  plural  first  person  is  not 
always  of  majesty  but  often  of  modesty^  when  we  share  our 
privileg-e  and  dignity  with  others"  [Groitus).  The  context 
must  decide  what  shade  of  meaning  is  to  be  read  into  the 
text,  e.g:,  here  it  is  the  we  of  modesty,  as  also  (very  tenderly 
and  beautifully)  in  ii.  i,  2,  v.  5.  It  rises  into  majesty  with  the 
majestic,  "  we  announce." 

Ver.  4.  ^'  These  thi?igsy\  Not  even  the_/^//(?z£»j-/??^  with  the 
Church  and  with  the  Father  and  with  the  Son  is  so  much  in 
the  Apostle's  intention  here  as  the  record  in  the  Gospel. 

We  write  unto  you.]  In  days  when  men's  minds  were  still 
freshly  full  of  the  privilege  of  free  access  to  the  Scriptures, 
these  words  suggested  (and  they  naturally  enough  do  so  still) 
the  use  of  the  written  word,  and  the  guilt  of  the  Church  or  of 
individuals  in  neglecting  it.  This  has  been  well  expressed  by 
an  old  divine.  "  That  which  is  able  to  give  us  full  joy  must 
not  be  deficient  in  anything  which  conduceth  to  our  happi- 
ness ;  but  the  holy  Scriptures  give  fulness  of  joy,  and  there- 
fore the  way  to  happiness  is  perfectly  laid  down  in  them.  The 
major  of  this  syllogism  is  so  clear,  that  it  needs  no  probation ; 
for  who  can  or  will  deny,  that  full  joy  is  only  to  be  had  in  a 
state  of  bliss  ?  The  miitor  is  plain  from  this  scripture,  and 
may  thus  be  drawn  forth.  That  which  the  Apostles  aimed  at 
in,  may  doubtless  be  attained  to  by,  their  writings  ;  for  they 
being  inspired  of  God,  it  is  no  other  than  the  end  that  God 
purposed  in  inspiring  which  they  had  in  writing ;  and  either 
God  Himself  is  wanting  in  the  means  which  He  hath  designed 
for  this  end,  or  these  writings  contain  in  them  what  will  yield 
fulness  of  joy,  and  to  that  end  bring  us  to  a  state  of  blessed- 
ness. 

"  How  odious  is  the  profanertess  of  those  Christians  who 


i.  I.]  HISTORICAL  NOT  IDEOLOGICAL.  99 

neglect  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  give  themselves  to  reading 
other  books  !  How  many  precious  hours  do  many  spend,  and 
that  not  only  on  work  days,  but  holy  days,  in  foolish  romances, 
fabulous  histories,  lascivious  poems  !  And  why  this,  but  that 
they  maybe  cheered  and  delighted,  when  as  full  joy  is  only  to 
be  had  in  these  holy  books.  Alas,  the  joy  you  find  in  those 
writings  is  perhaps  pernicious,  such  as  tickleth  your  lust,  and 
promoteth  contemplative  wickedness.  At  the  best  it  is  but 
vain,  such  as  only  pleaseth  the  fancy  and  affecteth  the  wit ; 
whereas  these  holy  writings  (to  use  David's  expression.  Psalm 
xix.  8),  are  '  right,  rejoicing  the  heart.'  Again,  are  there  not 
many  who  more  set  by  Plutarch's  morals,  Seneca's  epistles, 
and  suchlike  books,  than  they  do  by  the  holy  Scriptures  ?  It 
is  true,  there  are  excellent  truths  in  those  moral  writings  of 
the  heathen,  but  yet  they  are  far  short  of  these  sacred  books. 
Those  may  comfort  against  outward  trouble,  but  not  against 
inward  fears  ;  they  may  rejoice  the  mind,  but  cannot  quiet  the 
conscience  ;  they  may  kindle  some  flashy  sparkles  of  joy,  but 
they  cannot  warm  the  soul  with  a  lasting  fire  of  solid  consola- 
tion. And  truly,  if  ever  God  give  you  a  spiritual  ear  to  judge 
of  things  aright,  you  will  then  acknowledge  there  are  no  bells 
like  to  those  of  Aaron,  no  harp  like  to  that  of  David,  no 
trumpet  like  to  that  of  Isaiah,  no  pipes  like  to  those  of  the 
Apostles."  {First  Epistle  of  St.  John,  unfolded  and  a J> J)  lied 
by  Nathaniel  Hardy,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Rochester,  about  1660.) 


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DISCOURSE    III. 

EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT, 

'•  My  little  children,  these  things  write  I  unto  you,  that  ye  sin  not. 
And  if  any  man  sin  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus 
Christ  the  righteous :  and  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not 
for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." — I  John  ii.  i,  2. 

OF  the  Incarnation  of  the  Word,  of  the  whole 
previous  strain  of  solemn  oracular  annunciation, 
there  are  two  great  objects.  Rightly  understood  it 
at  once  stimulates  and  soothes ;  it  supplies  induce- 
ments to  holiness,  and  yet  quiets  the  accusing  heart, 
(l)  It  urges  to  a  pervading  holiness  in  each  recurring 
circumstance  of  life.^  "That  ye  may  not  sin  "  is  the 
bold  universal  language  of  the  morality  of  God.  Men 
only  understand  moral  teaching  when  it  comes  with 
a  series  of  monographs  on  the  virtues,  sobriety,  chastity, 
and  the  rest.  Christianity  does  not  overlook  these,  but 
it  comes  first  with  all-inclusive  principles.  The  morality 
of  man  is  like  the  sculptor  working  line  by  line  and 
part  by  part,  partially  and  successively.  The  morality 
of  God  is  like  nature,  and  works  in  every  part  of  the 
flower  and  tree  with  a  sort  of  ubiquitous  presence. 
"  These  things  write  we  unto  you."  No  dead  letter^ 
a  living  spirit  infuses  the  lines ;  there  is  a  deathless 
principle    behind   the   words   which   will   vitalize  and 

'  Observe  in  the  Greek  the  /li;  a/j-dprriTe,  which  refers  to  single  acts, 
not  to  a  continuous  state — "  that  ye  may  not  stM," 


ii.  1,2.]  EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT,  103 

permeate  all  isolated  relations  and  developments  of 
conduct.  "  These  things  write  we  unto  you  that  ye 
may  not  sin." 

(2)  But  further,  this  announcement  also  soothes. 
There  may  be  isolated  acts  of  sin  against  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  higher  and  nobler  life.  There  may  be, 
God  forbid  !— but  it  may  be — some  glaring  act  of  in- 
consistency. In  this  case  the  Apostle  uses  a  form  of 
expression  which  includes  himself,  "  we  have,"  and  yet 
points  to  Christ,  not  to  himself,  "  we  have  an  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ" — and  that  in  view  of 
His  being  One  who  is  perfectly  and  simply  righteous ; 
"and  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 

Then,  as  if  suddenly  fired  by  a  great  thought,  St. 
John's  view  broadens  over  the  whole  world  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  comparatively  little  group  of  believers 
whom  his  words  at  that  time  could  reach.  The  Incar- 
nation and  Atonement  have  been  before  his  soul.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  the  correlative  of  the  first,  humanity 
of  the  second.  The  Paraclete  whom  he  beheld  is  ever 
in  relation  with,  ever  turned  towards  the  Father.^ 
His  propitiation  is,  and  He  is  it.  It  was  not  simply  a 
fact  in.  history  which  works  on  with  unexhaustible  force. 
As  the  Advocate  is  ever  turned  towards  the  Father,  so 
the  propitiation  lives  on  with  unexhausted  life.  His 
intercession  is  not  verbal,  temporary,  interrupted.  The 
Church,  in  her  best  days,  never  prayed — "  Jesus,  pray 
for  me ! "  It  is  interpretative,  continuous,  unbroken. 
In   time   it  is   eternally  valid,   eternally  present.     In 

'  I  John  ii.  2.  As  a  translation,  "towards"  seems  too  pedantic ; 
yet  vpbi  is  ad-versus  rather  than  apttd,  and  with  the  accusative 
signifies  either  the  direction  of  motion,  or  the  relation  between  two 
objects.  (Donaldson,  Greek  Grammar,  524).  We  may  fittingly  call  the 
preposition  here  irpoi  pictorial. 


I04  THE  EPISTLES  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

space  it  extends  as  far  as  human  need,  and  therefore 
takes  in  every  place.  "  Not  for  our  sins  only,"  but  for 
men  universally,  "  for  the  whole  world."  ^ 

It  is  implied  then  in  this  passage,  that  Christ  was 
intended  as  a  propitiation  for  the  whole  world  ;  and  that 
He  is  fitted  for  satisfying  all  human  wants. 

(l)  Christ  was  intended  for  the  whole  world.  Let 
us  see  the  Divine  intention  in  one  incident  of  the 
crucifixion.  In  that  are  mingling  Hnes  of  glory  and 
of  humiliation.  The  King  of  humanity  appears  with 
a  scarlet  camp-mantle  flung  contemptuously  over  His 
shoulders ;  but  to  the  eye  of  faith  it  is  the  purple  of 
empire.  He  is  crowned  with  the  acanthus  wreath ; 
but  the  wreath  of  mockery  is  the  royalty  of  our  race. 
He  is  crucified  between  two  thieves ;  but  His  cross  is 
a  Judgment-Throne,  and  at  His  right  hand  and  His 
left  are  the  two  separated  worlds  of  belief  and  unbelief. 
All  the  Evangelists  tell  us  that  a  superscription,  a  title 
of  accusation,  was  written  over  His  cross  ;  two  of  them 
add  that  it  was  written  over  Him  "in  letters  of  Greek, 
and  Latin,  and  Hebrew  "  (or  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin). 
In  Hebrew — the  sacred  tongue  of  patriarchs  and  seers, 
of  the  nation  all  whose  members  were  in  idea  and 
destination  those  of  whom  God  said,  "  My  prophets." 
In  Greek — the  "musical  and  golden  tongue  which 
gave  a  soul  to  the  objects  of  sense  and  a  body  to 
the   abstractions   of  philosophy;"  the  language  of  a 


'  The  various  meanings  of  /cio-uos  are  fully  traced  below  on  I  John 
ii.  17.  There  is  one  point  in  which  the  notions  of  Koa/xos  and  alwi' 
intersect.  But  they  may  be  thus  distinguished.  The  first  signifies 
the  world  projected  in  space,  the  second  in  time.  The  supposition 
that  the  form  of  expression  at  the  close  of  our  verse  is  elliptical, 
and  to  be  filled  up  by  the  repetition  of  "for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world"  "is  not  justified  by  usage,  and  weakens  the  force  of  the 
passage."     {Epistles  0/ St.  John,  Westcott,  p.  44.) 


ii.1,2.]  EXTENT  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  105 

people  whose  mission  it  was  to  give  a  principle  of  fer- 
mentation to  all  races  of  mankind,  susceptible  of  those 
subtle  and  largely  indefinable  influences  which  are  called 
collectively  Progress.  In  Latin — the  dialect  of  a  people 
originally  the  strongest  of  all  the  sons  of  men.  The 
three  languages  represent  the  three  races  and  their 
ideas — revelation,  art,  literature;  progress,  war,  and 
jurisprudence.  Beneath  ths  title  is  the  thorn-crowned 
head  of  the  ideal  King  of  humanity. 

Wherever  these  three  tendencies  of  the  human  race 
exist,  wherever  annunciation  can  be  made  in  human 
language,  wherever  there  is  a  heart  to  sin,  a  tongue 
to  speak,  an  eye  to  read,  the  cross  has  a  message. 
The  superscription,  "  written  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin,"  is  the  historical  symbol  translated  into  its 
dogmatic  form  by  St.  John — "  He  is  the  propitiation  ^ 
for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the 
whole  world." 

'  As  to  doctrine.  There  are  three  "grand  circles"  or  "families 
of  images"  whereby  Scripture  approaches  from  diflferent  quarters,  or 
surveys  from  different  sides,  the  benefits  of  our  Lord's  meritorious 
death.  These  are  represented  by,  are  summed  up  in,  three  words — 
a.iroKvTpoiaL%,  KaTaWayrj,  iXaafios.  The  last  is  found  in  the  text  and  in 
iv.  10;  nowhere  else  precisely  in  that  form  in  the  New  Testament. 
''  IXac/jLos  (expiation  or  propitiation)  and  diroXiiTpucris  (redemption)  is 
fundamentally  one  single  benefit,  i.e.,  the  restitution  of  the  lost  sinner. 
'AwoXvTpuais  is  in  respect  of  enemies;  KaraXXayi]  in  respect  of  Gocf, 
And  here  again  the  words  iXafffj..  and  KaraXX.  differ.  Propitiation 
takes  away  offences  as  against  God.  Reconciliation  has  two  sides.  It 
takes  away  (a)  God's  indignation  against  us,  2  Cor.  v.  18,  19;  (6)  our 
alienation  from  God,  2  Cor.  v.  20."  (Bengel  on  Rom.  iii.  24.  Whoever 
would  rightly  understand  all  that  we  can  know  on  these  great  words 
must  study  New  Testament  Synonyms,  Archbp.  Trench,  pp.  276-82.) 


DISCOURSE  IV. 

MISSIONARY  APPLICATION  OF  THE  EXTENT  OF 

THE  ATONEMENT. 

"For  the  whole  world." — I  John  ii.  2. 

LET  US  now  consider  the  universal  and  ineradicable 
wants  of  man. 

Such  a  consideration  is  substantially  unaffected  by 
speculation  as  to  the  theory  of  man's  origin.  Whether 
the  first  men  are  to  be  looked  for  by  the  banks  of  some 
icy  river  feebly  shaping  their  arrowheads  of  flint,  or 
in  godlike  and  glorious  progenitors  beside  the  streams 
of  Eden ;  whether  our  ancestors  were  the  result  of  an 
inconceivably  ancient  evolution,  or  called  into  existence 
by  a  creative  act,  or  sprung  from  some  lower  creature 
elevated  in  the  fulness  of  time  by  a  majestic  inspiration, 
— at  least,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  man  has  other  and 
deeper  wants  than  those  of  the  back  and  stomach. 
Man  as  he  is  has  five  spiritual  instincts.  How  they 
came  to  be  there,  let  it  be  repeated,  is  not  the  question. 
It  is  the  fact  of  their  existence,  not  the  mode  of  their 
genesis,  with  which  we  are  now  concerned. 

(i)  There  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  without  exception 
the  instinct  which  may  be  generally  described  as  the 
instinct  of  the  Divine.  In  the  wonderful  address  where 
St.  Paul  so  fully  recognises  the  influence  of  geographical 
circumstance  and  of  climate,  he  speaks  of  God  "having 
made  out  of  one  blood  every  nation  of  men  to  seek 


ii.  2.]  MISSIONARY  APPLICATION.  107 

after  their  Lord,  if  haply  at  least "  (as  might  be 
expected)  "they  would  feel  for  Him"^ — like  men  in 
darkness  groping  towards  the  light.  (2)  There  is  the 
instinct  of  prayer,  the  "  testimony  of  the  soul  naturally 
Christian."  The  little  child  at  our  knees  meets  us 
half  way  in  the  first  touching  lessons  in  the  science  ot 
prayer.  In  danger,  when  the  vessel  seems  to  be  sinking 
in  a  storm,  it  is  ever  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Jonah, 
when  "  the  mariners  cried  every  man  unto  his  God."  ^ 

(3)  There  is  the  instinct  of  immortality,  the  desire  that 

our  conscious  existence  should  continue  beyond  death. 

"  Who  would  lose, 
Though  full  of  pain,  this  intellectual  being, 
These  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity, 
To  perish  rather  swallow'd  up  and  lost 
In  the  wide  womb  of  uncreated  night  ?  " 

(4)  There  is  the  instinct  of  morality,  call  it  con- 
science or  what  we  will.  The  lowest,  most  sordid, 
most  materialised  languages  are  never  quite  without 
witness  to  this  nobler  instinct.  Though  such  languages 
have  lien  among  the  pots,  yet  their  wings  are  as  the 
wings  of  a  dove  that  is  covered  with  silver  wings  and 
her  feathers  like  gold.  The  most  impoverished  voca- 
bularies have  words  of  moral  judgment,  "  good "  or 
"  bad  ; "  of  praise  or  blame,  "  truth  and  lie ; "  above 
all,  those  august  words  which  recognise  a  law  paramount 
to  all  other  laws,  "I  must,"  "I  ought."  (5)  There  is 
the  instinct  oi  sacrifice,  which,  if  not  absolutely  universal, 
is  at  least  all  but  so — the  sense  of  impurity  and  un- 
worthiness,  which  says  by  the  very  fact  of  bringing  a 
victim.  "  I  am  not  worthy  to  come  alone ;  may  my  guilt 
be  transferred  to  the  representative  which  I  immolate." 

•  Acts  xvii.  27.  '  Jonah  i.  5. 


io8    MISSIONARY  APPLICATION  OF  THE  EXTENT 

(i)  Thus  then  man  seeks  after  God.  Philosophy 
unaided  does  not  succeed  in  finding  Him,  The  theistic 
systems  marshal  their  syllogisms ;  they  prove,  but  do 
not  convince.  The  pantheistic  systems  glitter  before 
man's  eye ;  but  when  he  grasps  them  in  his  feverish 
hand,  and  brushes  off  the  mystic  gold  dust  from  the 
moth's  wings,  a  death's-head  mocks  him.  St.  John 
has  found  the  essence  of  the  whole  question  stripped 
from  it  all  its  plausible  disguises,  and  characterises 
Mahommedan  and  Judaistic  Deism  in  a  few  words. 
Nay,  the  philosophical  deism  of  Christian  countries 
comes  within  the  scope  of  his  terrible  proposition. 
"  Deo  erexit  Voltairius,"  was  the  philosopher's  in- 
scription over  the  porch  of  a  church ;  but  Voltaire 
had  not  in  any  true  sense  a  God  to  whom  he  could 
dedicate  it.  For  St.  John  tells  us — "  whosoever 
denieth  the  Son,  the  same  hath  not  the  Father."  * 
Other  w'ords  there  are  in  his  Second  Epistle  whose 
full  import  seems  to  have  been  generally  overlooked, 
but  which  are  of  solemn  significance  to  those  who  go 
out  from  the  camp  of  Christianity  with  the  idea  of 
finding  a  more  refined  morality  and  a  more  ethereal 
spiritualism.  "  Whosoever  goeth  forward  and  abideth 
not  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ " ;  whosoever  writes 
progress  on  his  standard,  and  goes  forward  beyond 
the  lines  of  Christ,  loses  natural  as  well  as  supernatural 
religion — "  he  hath  not  God."^  (2)  Man  wants  to  pray. 
Poor  disinherited  child,  what  master  of  requests  shall 
he  find  ?  Who  shall  interpret  his  broken  language  to 
God,  God's  infinite  language  to  him  ?  (3)  Man  yearns 
for  the  assurance  of  immortal  life.  This  can  best  be 
given  by  one  specimen  of  manhood   risen  from   the 

'  I  John  ii.  28.  *  2  John  9. 


ii.2.]  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  '  109 

grave,  one  traveller  come  back  from  the  undiscovered 
bourne  with  the  breath  of  eternity  on  His  cheek  and  its 
hght  in  His  eye ;  one  like  Jonah,  Himself  the  living 
sign  and  proof  that  He  has  been  down  in  the  great 
deeps.  (4)  Man  needs  a  morality  to  instruct  and 
elevate  conscience.  Such  a  morality  must  possess 
these  characteristics.  It  must  be  authoritative,  resting 
upon  an  absolute  will;  its  teacher  must  say,  not  "I 
think,"  or  "  I  conclude,"  but — "  verily,  verily  I  say 
unto  you."  It  must  be  unmixed  with  baser  and  more 
questionable  elements.  It  must  be  pervasive,  laying 
the  strong  grasp  of  its  purity  on  the  whole  domain  of 
thought  and  feeling  as  well  as  of  action.  It  must  be 
exemplified.  It  must  present  to  us  a  series  of  pictures, 
of  object-lessons  in  which  we  may  see  it  illustrated. 
Finally,  this  morality  must  be  spiritual.  It  must  come 
to  man,  not  like  the  Jewish  Talmud  with  its  seventy 
thousand  precepts  which  few  indeed  can  ever  learn,  but 
with  a  compendious  and  condensed,  yet  all-embracing 
brevity — with  words  that  are  spirit  and  life.  (5)  As 
man  knows  duty  more  thoroughly,  the  instinct  of 
sacrifice  will  speak  with  an  ever-increasing  intensity. 
"  My  heart  is  overwhelmed  by  the  infinite  purity  of 
this  law.  Lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is  higher  than  I ; 
let  me  find  God  and  be  reconciled  to  Him."  When 
the  old  Latin  spoke  of  propitiation  he  thought  of  some* 
thing  which  brought  near  {prope') ;  his  inner  thought 
was — "  let  God  come  near  to  me,  that  I  may  be  near  to 
God."  These  five  ultimate  spiritual  wants,  these  five 
ineradicable  spiritual  instincts.  He  must  meet,  of  whom 
a  master  of  spiritual  truth  like  St.  John  can  say  with  his 
plenitude  of  insight — "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world." 
We  shall  better  understand  the  fulness  of  St.  John's 


no    MISSIONARY  APPLICATION  OF  THE  EXTENT 

thought  if  we  proceed  to  consider  that  this  fitness  in  Christ 
for  meeting  the  spiritual  wants  of  humanity  is  exclusive. 
Three  great  religions  of  the  world  are  more  or  less 
Missionary.  Hinduism,  which  embraces  at  least  a 
hundred  and  ninety  millions  of  souls,  is  certainly  not 
in  any  sense  missionary.  For  Hinduism  transplanted 
from  its  ancient  shrines  and  local  superstitions  dies 
like  a  flower  without  roots.  But  Judaism  at  times  has 
strung  itself  to  a  kind  of  exertion  almost  inconsistent 
with  its  leading  idea.  The  very  word  "  proselyte  "  attests 
the  unnatural  fervour  to  which  it  had  worked  itself  up 
in  our  Lord's  time.  The  Pharisee  was  a  missionary 
sent  out  by  pride  and  consecrated  by  self-will.  "Ye 
compass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when 
he  is  made,  ye  make  him  tenfold  more  the  child  of 
hell  than  yourselves."^  Bouddhism  has  had  enormous 
missionary  success  from  one  point  of  view.  Not  long 
ago  It  was  said  that  it  outnumbered  Christendom.  But 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  it  finds  adherents  among  people 
of  only  one  type  of  thought  and  character.^  Outside  these 
races  it  is  and  must  ever  be,  non-existent.  We  may  ex- 
cept the  fanciful  perversion  of  a  few  idle  people  in  London, 
Calcutta,  or  Ceylon,  captivated  for  a  season  or  two  by 

'  Matt,  xxiii.  15. 

*  Bouddhism,  it  is  now  said,  appears  to  be  on  the  wane,  and  the 
period  for  its  disappearance  gradually  approaching,  according  to  the 
lioden  Professor  of  Sanscrit  at  Oxford.  In  his  opinion  this  creed  is 
"one  of  rapidly  increasing  disintegration  and. decline,"  and  "as  a 
form  of  popular  religion  Bouddhism  is  gradually  losing  its  vitality  and 
hold  on  the  vast  populations  once  loyal  to  its  rule."  He  computes 
the  number  of  Bouddhists  at  100,000,000;  not  400,000,000  as  hitherto 
estimated  ;  and  places  Christianity  numerically  at  the  head  of  all 
religions.  Next  Confucianism,  thirdly  Hinduism  ;  then  Bouddhism, 
and  last  Mohammedanism.  He  affirms  that  the  capacity  of  Bouddhism 
for  resistance  must  give  way  before  the  "mighty  forces  which  are 
destined  to  sweep  the  earth." 


ii  2.]  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  Ill 

"  the  light  of  Asia."  We  may  except  also  a  very  few 
more  remarkable  cases  where  the  esoteric  principle  oi 
Bouddhism  commends  itself  to  certain  profound  thinkers 
stricken  with  the  dreary  disease  of  modern  sentiment. 
Mohammedanism  has  also,  in  a  limited  degree,  proved 
itself  a  missionary  religion,  not  only  by  the  sword.  In 
British  India  it  counts  millions  of  adherents,  and  it  is 
still  making  some  progress  in  India.  In  other  ages 
whole  Christian  populations  (but  belonging  to  heretical 
and  debased  forms  of  Christianity)  have  gone  over  to 
Mohammedanism.  Let  us  be  just  to  it.^  It  once  ele- 
vated the  pagan  Arabs.  Even  now  it  elevates  the  Negro 
above  his  fetisch.  But  it  must  ever  remain  a  religion 
for  stationary  races,  with  its  sterile  God  and  its  poor 
literality,  the  dead  book  pressing  upon  it  with  a  weight 
of  lead.  Its  merits  are  these — it  inculcates  a  lofty  if 
sterile  Theism  ;  it  fulfils  the  pledge  conveyed  in  the  word 
Moslem,  by  inspiring  a  calm  if  frigid  resignation  to 
destiny ;  it  teaches  the  duty  of  prayer  with  a  strange  im- 
pressiveness.  But  whole  realms  of  thought  and  feeling 
are  crushed  out  by  its  bloody  and  lustful  grasp.  It  is 
without  purity,  without  tenderness,  and  without  humility. 

Thus  then  we  com.e  back  again  with  a  truer  insight 
to  the  exclusive  fitness  of  Christ  to  meet  the  wants 
of  mankind. 

Others  beside  the  Incarnate  Lord  have  obtained 
from  a  portion  of  their  fellow-men  some  measure  oi 
passionate  enthusiasm.  Each  people  has  a  hero  during 
this  life,  call  him  demigod,  or  what  we  will.  But  such 
men  are  idolised  by  one  race  alone.     The  very  qualities 

•  That  modern  English  writers  have  been  more  than  just  to 
Mohammed  is  proved  overwhchningly  by  the  living  Missionary  who 
knows  Mohammedanism  besi.— Mohammed  and  Mohammedans.  Dr. 
Koello. 


112    MISSIONARY  APPLICATION  OF  THE  EXTENT 

which  procure  them  an  apotheosis  are  precisely  those 
which  prove  how  narrow  the  type  is  which  they  repre- 
sent ;  how  far  they  are  from  speaking  to  all  humanity. 
A  national  type  is  a  narrow  and  exclusive  type. 

No  European,  unless  effeminated  and  enfeebled,  could 
really  love  an  Asiatic  Messiah.  But  Christ  is  loved 
everywhere.  No  race  or  kindred  is  exempt  from  the 
sweet  contagion  produced  by  the  universal  appeal  of 
the  universal  Saviour.  From  all  languages  spoken  by 
the  lips  of  man,  hymns  of  adoration  are  offered  to  Him. 
We  read  in  England  the  Confessions  of  St.  Augus- 
tine. Those  words  still  quiver  with  the  emotions  of 
penitence  and  praise ;  still  breathe  the  breath  of  life. 
Those  ardent  affections,  those  yearnings  of  personal 
love  to  Christ,  which  filled  the  heart  of  Augustine 
fifteen  centuries  ago,  under  the  blue  sky  of  Africa, 
touch  us  even  now  under  this  grey  heaven  in  the 
fierce  hurry  of  our  modern  life.  But  they  have  in 
them  equally  the  possibility  of  touching  the  Shanar  of 
Tinnevelly,  the  Negro — even  the  Bushman,  or  the  native 
of  Terra  del  Fuego.  By  a  homage  of  such  diversity 
and  such  extent  we  recognise  a  universal  Saviour  for 
the  universal  wants  of  universal  man,  the  fitting  pro- 
pitiation for  the  whole  world. 

Towards  the  close  of  this  Epistle  St.  John  oracularly 
utters  three  great  canons  of  universal  Christian  con- 
sciousness— "we  know,"  "we  know,"  "we  know."  Of 
these  three  canons  the  second  is — "we  know  that  we 
are  from  God,  and  the  world  lieth  wholly  in  the  wicked 
one."  "  A  characteristic  Johannic  exaggeration "  ! 
some  critic  has  exclaimed;  yet  surely  even  in  Christian 
lands  where  men  lie  outside  the  influences  of  the 
Divine  society,  we  have  only  to  read  the  Police-reports  to 
justify  the  Apostle.     In  volumes  of  travels,  again,  in  the 


ii.2.]  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  113 

pages  of  Darwin  and  Baker,  from  missionary  records 
in  places  where  the  earth  is  full  of  darkness  and  cruel 
habitations,  we  are  told  of  deeds  of  lust  and  blood 
which  almost  make  us  blush  to  bear  the  same  form 
with  creatures  so  degraded.  Yet  the  very  same  mis- 
sionary records  bear  witness  that  in  every  race  which 
the  Gospel  proclamation  has  reached,  however  low  it 
may  be  placed  in  the  scale  of  the  ethnologist ;  deep 
under  the  ruins  of  the  fall  are  the  spiritual  instincts^ 
the  affections  which  have  for  their  object  the  infinite 
God,  and  for  their  career  the  illimitable  ages.  The 
shadow  of  sin  is  broad  indeed.  But  in  the  evening 
light  of  God's  love  the  shadow  of  the  cross  is  projected 
further  still  into  the  infinite  beyond.  Missionary 
success  is  therefore  sure,  if  it  be  slow.  The  reason  is 
given  by  St.  John.  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  for  the  whole  world." 

NOTES. 
Ch.  i.  5  to  ii.  3. 

Ver.  5.  The  Word,  the  Life,  the  Light,  are  connected  in  the 
first  chapter  as  in  John  i.  3,  4,  5.  Upon  earth,  behind  all 
life  is  light ;  in  the  spiritual  world,  behind  all  light  is  life. 

Dafkfiess.']  The  schoolmen  well  said  that  there  is  a  four- 
ft/id  darkness — of  nature,  of  ignorance,  of  misery,  of  sin.  The 
symbol  of  light  applied  to  God  must  designate  perfect  good- 
ness and  beauty,  combined  with  blissful  consciousness  of  it, 
and  transparent  luminous  clearness  of  wisdom. 

Ver,  7.  The  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son']  So.  poured  forth. 
This  word  (the  Blood)  denotes  more  vividly  and  effectively 
than  any  other  could  do  three  great  realities  of  the  Chris- 
tian belief — the  reality  of  the  Manhood  of  Jesus,  the  reality 
of  His  sufferings,  the  reality  of  His  sacrifice.  It  is  dogma ; 
but  dogma  made  pictorial,  pathetic,  almost  passionate. 
It  may  be   noted    that  much   current  thought   and  feeling 


114    MISSIONARY  APPLICATION  OF  THE  EXTENT 

around  us  is  just  at  the  opposite  extreme.  It  is  a  semi- 
doketism  which  is  manifested  in  two  different  forms,  (i)  Whilst 
it  need  not  be  denied  that  there  are  hymns  which  are  pervaded 
by  an  ensanguined  materialism,  and  which  are  calculated  to 
wound  reverence,  as  well  as  taste  ;  it  is  clear  that  much 
criticism  on  hymns  and  sermons,  where  the  "  Blood  of  Jesus  " 
is  at  all  appealed  to,  has  an  ultra-refinement  which  is 
unscriptural  and  rationalistic.  It  is  out  of  touch  with  St. 
Paul  (Col.  i.  14-20),  with  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  (Heb.  ix.  14)  (a  passage  strikingly  like  this  verse), 
with  St.  Peter  (1  Pet.  i.  19),  with  St.  John  in  this  Epistle, 
with  the  redeemed  in  heaven  (Apoc.  v.  9).  (2)  A  good  deal  of 
feeling  against  representations  in  sacred  art  seems  to  have  its 
origin  in  this  sort  of  unconscious  semi-doketism.  It  appears 
to  be  thought  that  when  representation  supersedes  symbolism, 
Christian  thought  and  feeling  necessarily  lose  everything  and 
gain  nothing.  But  surely  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  for 
a  being  like  man  there  are  two  worlds,  one  of  ideas,  the  other 
of  facts  ;  one  of  philosophy,  the  other  of  history.  The  one 
is  filled  with  things  which  are  conceived,  the  other  with  things 
which  are  done.  One  contents  itself  with  a  shadowy  symbol, 
the  other  is  not  satisfied  except  by  a  concrete  representation. 
So  we  venture  respectfully  to  think  that  the  image  of  the  dead 
Christ  is  not  foreign  to  Scripture  or  Scriptural  thought ;  simply 
because,  as  a  fact.  He  died.  Calvary,  the  tree,  the  wounds,  were 
not  ideal.  The  crucifixion  was  not  a  symbol  for  dainty  and 
refined  abstract  theorists.  The  form  of  the  Crucified  was  not 
veiled  by  silver  mists  and  crowned  with  roses.  He  who  realises 
the  meaning  of  the  "  Blood  of  Jesus,"  and  is  conststefit,  will 
not  be  severe  upon  the  expression  of  the  same  thought  in 
another  form. 

"  Note  that  which  Estius  hath  upon  the  blood  of  his  Son, 
that  in  them  there  is  a  confutation  of  three  heresies  at  once  : 
the  Manichees,  who  deny  the  truth  of  Christ's  human  nature, 
since,  as  Alexander  said  of  his  wound,  clamat  me  esse 
ho?ni7ieni,  it  proclaimeth  me  a  man,  we  may  say  of  His  blood, 
for  had  He  not  been  man  He  could  not  have  bled,  have  died  ; 
the  Ebionites,  who  deny  Him  to  be  God,  since,  being  God's 
natural  Son,  He  must  needs  be  of  the  same  essence  with  Him- 
self; and  the  Nestorians,  who  make  two  persons,  which,  if 


H.2.]  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  1 15 

true,  the  blood  of  Christ  the  man  could  not  have  been  called 
the  blood  of  Christ  the  Son  of  God." 

"That  which  I  conceive  here  chiefly  to  be  taken  notice  of  is, 
that  our  Apostle  contents  not  himself  to  say  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  yut  he  addeth  His  Son,  to  intimate  to  us  how  this 
blood  became  available  to  our  cleansing,  to  wit,  as  it  was  the 
blood  not  merely  of  the  Son  of  Mary,  the  Son  of  David,  the 
Son  of  Man,  but  of  Him  who  was  also  the  Son  of  God." 

"  Behold,  O  sinner,  the  exceeding  love  of  thy  Saviour,  who, 
that  He  might  cleanse  thee  when  polluted  in  thy  blood,  was 
pleased  to  shed  His  own  blood.  Indeed,  the  pouring  out  of 
Christ's  blood  was  a  super-excellent  work  of  charity ;  hence 
it  is  that  these  two  are  joined  together ;  and  when  the  Scrip- 
ture speaketh  of  His  love,  it  presently  annexeth  His  sufferings. 
We  read,  that  when  Christ  wept  for  Lazarus,  John  xi.  36,  the 
standers  by  said,  "  See  how  He  loved  him."  Surely  if  His 
tears,  much  more  His  blood,  proclaimeth  His  affection  towards 
us.  The  Jews  were  the  scribes,  the  nails  were  the  pens.  His 
body  the  white  paper,  and  His  blood  the  red  ink  ;  and  the 
characters  were  love,  exceeding  love,  and  these  so  fairly 
written  that  he  which  runs  may  read  them.  I  shut  up  this 
with  that  of  devout  Bernard,  Behold  and  look  upon  the  rose 
of  His  bloody  passion,  how  His  redness  bespeaketh  His 
flaming  love,  there  being,  as  it  were,  a  contention  betwixt  His 
passion  and  affection  :  this,  that  it  might  be  hotter  ;  that,  that 
it  might  be  redder.  Nor  had  His  sufferings  been  so  red  with 
blood  had  not  His  heart  been  inflamed  with  love.  Oh  lot  us 
beholding  magnify,  magnifying  admire,  and  admiring-  praise 
Him  for  His  inestimable  goodness,  saying  with  the  holy 
Apostle  (Rev.  i.  5),  '  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  His  blood,  be  honour  and  glory  for  ever.'  " — 
Dean  Hardy  (pp.  77,  "j^.)  Observe  on  this  verse  its  unison 
of  thought  and  feeling  with  Apoc.  i.  5,  xxii.  14. 

Chap.  ii.  I.  We  have  an  Advocate]  literally  Paraclete. 
One  called  in  to  aid  him  whose  cause  is  to  be  tried  or  petition 
considered.  The  word  is  used  only  by  St.  John,  four  times  in 
the  Gospel,  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; '  once  here  of  Christ. 

"  And  now,  O  thou  drooping  sinner,  let  me  bespeak  thee  in 

•  John  xiv.  16,  26,  XV.  26,  xvi.  7. 


Ii6  MISSI0A\4RY  APPLICATION. 

St.  Austin's '   language :  Thou  committest  thy  cause  to  an 

eloquent  lawyer,  and  art  safe  ;  how  canst  thou  miscarry,  when 

thou  hast  the  Word  to  be  thy  advocate  ?     Let  me  put  this 

question  to  thee  :  If,  when  thou  sinnest,  thou  hadst  all  the 

angels,  saints,  confessors,  martyrs,  in  those  celestial  mansions 

to  beg  thy  pardon,  dost  thou  think  they  would  not  speed  ?     I 

tell  thee,  one  word  out  of  Christ's  mouth  is  more  worth  than 

all  their  conjoined   entreaties.     When,   therefore,  thy  daily 

infirmities  discourage  thee,  or  particular  falls  affright   tho;, 

imagine  with  thyself  that  thou  heardst  thy  advocate  pleading 

for  thee  in  these  or  the  like  expressions  :  O  My  loving  Father, 

look  upon  the  face  of  Thine  Anointed  ;  behold  the  hands,  and 

feet,  and  side  of  Thy  crucified  Christ !     I  had  no  sins  of  My 

own  for  which  I  thus  suffered  ;  no,  it  was  for  the  sins  of  t.iia 

penitent  wretch,  who  in  My  name  sued  for  pardon  !     Father, 

I  am  Thy  Son,  the  Son  of  Thy  love,  Thy  bosom,  who  plead 

with  Thee  ;  it  is  for  Thy  child,  Thy  returning  penitent  child, 

I  plead.     That  for  which  I  pray  is  no  more  than  what  I  paid 

for  ;  I  have  merited  pardon  for  all  that  come  to  Me  !     Oh  let 

those  merits  be  imputed,  and  that  pardon  granted  to  this  poor 

sinner  !     Cheer  up,  then,  thou  disconsolate  soul,  Christ  is  an 

advocate  for  thee,  and  therefore  do  not  despair,  but  believe ; 

and  believing,  rejoice ;  and  rejoicing,  triumph." — Deati  Hardy 

(pp.  128,  129).     In  these  days,  when  petitions  to  Jesus  to  pray 

for  us  have  crept  into  hymns  and  are  creeping  into  liturgies, 

it  may  be  well  to  note  that  in  the  remains  of  the  early  saints 

and  in  the  solemn  formulas  of  the  Christian  Church,  Christ  is 

not  asked  to  pray  for  us,  but  to  hear  our  prayers.     The  Son 

is  prayed  to ;  the  Father  is  prayed  to  through  the  Son;  the 

Son   is   never  prayed  to  pray  to  the   Father.      (See   Greg. 

Nazianz.,  Oratio  xxx.,  Theologies  iv.,  de  Filio.    See  Thomassin, 

Dogtn.  TheoL,  lib.  ix.,  cap.  6,  Tom.  iv.  220,  227.) 

Ver.  2.  Not  for  ours  onlyj]  This  large-hearted  after- 
thought reminds  one  of  St.  Paul's  "  corrective  and  ampliative  " 
addition ;  of  his  chivalrous  abstinence  from  exclusiveness  ia 
thought  or  word,  when  having  dictated  "  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,"  his  voice  falters,  and  he  feels  constrained  to  say — ■ 
"both  theirs,  and  ours"  (i  Cor.  i.  2). 

*  Aucr.  ir.  loc. 


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DISCOURSE  V. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  GREAT  LIFE   WALK 
A   PERSONAL  INFLUENCE. 

••  He  that  saith  he  abideth  in  Him,  ought  himself  also  so  to  walk 
even  as  He  also  walked." — I  John  ii.  6. 

THIS  verse  is  one  of  those  in  reading  which  we 
may  easily  fall  into  the  fallacy  of  mistaking 
familiarity  for  knowledge. 

Let  us  bring  out  its  meaning  with  accuracy. 

St.  John's  hatred  of  unreality,  of  lying  in  every  form, 
leads  him  to  claim  in  Christians  a  perfect  correspond- 
ence between  the  outward  profession  and  the  inward 
life,  as  well  as  the  visible  manifestation  of  it.  "  He 
that  saith "  always  marks  a  danger  to  those  who  are 
outwardly  in  Christian  communion.  It  is  the  "  take 
notice  "  of  a  hidden  falsity.  He  whose  claim,  possibly 
whose  vaunt,  is  that  he  abideth  in  Christ,  has  con- 
tracted a  moral  debt  of  far-reaching  significance.  St. 
John  seems  to  pause  for  a  moment.  He  points  to  a 
picture  in  a  page  of  the  scroll  which  is  beside  him — 
the  picture  of  Christ  in  the  Gospel  drawn  by  himself; 
not  a  vague  magnificence,  a  mere  harmony  of  colour, 
but  a  likeness  of  absolute  historical  truth.  Every 
pilgrim  of  time  in  the  continuous  course  of  his  daily 
walk,  outward  and  inward,  has  by  the  possession  of  that 
Gospel  contracted  an  obligation  to  be  walking  by  the 
one  great  life-walk  of  the  Pilgrim  of  eternity.  The  very 
depth  and  intensity  of  feeling  half  hushes  the  Apostle's 


i.e.]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  lig 

voice.  Instead  of  the  beloved  Name  which  all  who  love 
it  will  easily  supply/  St.  John  uses  the  reverential  He,  the 
pronoun  which  specially  belongs  to  Christ  in  the  vocabu- 
larly  of  the  Epistle.^  "  He  that  saith  he  abideth  in  Him  " 
is  bound,  even  as  He  once  walked,  to  be  ever  walking. 

I. 

The  importance  of  example  in  the  mor  al  and  spiritual 
life  gives  emphasis  to  this  canon  of  St.  John. 

Such  an  example  as  can  be  sufficient  for  creatures 
like  ourselves  should  be  at  once  manifested  in  concrete 
form  and  susceptible  of  ideal  application. 

This  was  felt  by  a  great  but  unhappily  anti-christian 
thinker,  the  exponent  of  a  severe  and  lofty  morality. 
Mr.  Mill  fully  confesses  that  there  may  be  an  elevating 
and  an  ennobling  influence  in  a  Divine  ideal ;  and  thus 
justifies  the  apparently  startling  precept — "  be  ye  there- 
fore perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven 
is  perfect."  ^  But  he  considered  that  some  more  human 
model  was  necessary  for  the  moral  striven  He  re- 
commends novel-readers,  when  they  are  charmed  or 
strengthened  by  some  conception  of  pure  manhood  or 
womanhood,  to  carry  that  conception  with  them  into 
their  own  lives.  He  would  have  them  ask  them- 
selves in  difficult  positions,  how  that  strong  and  lofty 
man,  that  tender  and  unselfish  woman,  would  have 
behaved  in  similar  circumstances,  and  so  bear  about 
with  them  a  standard  of  duty  at  once  compendious  and 

'  "Nomen  facile  supplent  credentes,  plenum  pectus  habentes 
memoria  Domini." — Beugel. 

*  '^Kilvoi  in  our  Epistle  belongs  to  Christ  in  every  place  but  one 
where  it  occurs  (l  John  ii.  6.  iii.  3,  5,  7,  16,  iv.  17  ;  cf.  John  i.  18,  ii.  21). 
It  is  very  much  equivalent  lo  our  reverent  usage  of  printing  the 
pronoun  which  refers  to  Christ  with  a  capital  letter. 

'  Matt.  vi.  45. 


I20     THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  GREAT  LIFE   WALK 

affecting.  But  to  this  there  is  one  fatal  objection — that 
such  an  elaborate  process  of  make-believe  is  practically 
impossible.  A  fantastic  morality,  if  it  were  possible  at 
all,  must  be  a  feeble  morality.  Surely  an  authentic 
example  will  be  greatly  more  valuable. 

But  example,  however  precious,  is  made  indefinitely 
more  powerful  when  it  is  living  example,  example 
crowned  by  personal  influence. 

So  far  as  the  stain  of  a  guilty  past  can  be  removed 
from  those  who  have  contracted  it ;  they  are  improvable 
and  capable  of  restoration,  chiefly,  perhaps  almost  ex- 
clusively, by  personal  influence  in  some  form.  When 
a  process  of  deterioration  and  decay  has  set  in  in  any 
human  soul,  the  germ  of  a  more  wholesome  growth 
is  introduced  in  nearly  every  case,  by  the  transfusion 
and  transplantation  of  healthier  life.  We  test  the 
soundness  or  the  putrefaction  of  a  soul  by  its  capacity 
of  receiving  and  assimilating  this  germ  of  restoration. 
A  parent  is  in  doubt  whether  a  son  is  susceptible  of 
renovation,  whether  he  has  not  become  wholly  evil. 
He  tries  to  bring  the  young  man  under  the  personal 
influence  of  a  friend  of  noble  and  sympathetic  cha- 
racter. Has  his  son  any  capacity  left  for  being  touched 
by  such  a  character;  of  admiring  its  strength  on  one 
side,  its  softness  on  another  ?  When  he  is  in  contact 
with  it,  when  he  perceives  how  pure,  how  self-sacri- 
ficing, how  true  and  straight  it  is,  is  there  a  glow  in 
his  face,  a  trembling  of  his  voice,  a  moisture  in  his  eye, 
a  wholesome  self-humiliation  ?  Or  does  he  repel  all 
this  with  a  sneer  and  a  bitter  gibe  ?  Has  he  that  evil 
attribute  which  is  possessed  only  by  the  most  deeply 
corrupt — "they    blaspheme,    rail   at    glories."^      The 

'   6>l'^as  ^XaacfiTjixoui'Tts  (2  Peter  ii,  lo;  Jude  v.  8). 


ii.  6.]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  \2\ 

Chaplain  of  a  penitentiary  records  that  among  the  most 
degraded  of  its  inmates  was  one  miserable  creature. 
The  Matron  met  her  with  firmness,  but  with  a  good 
will  which  no  hardness  could  break  down,  no  insolence 
overcome.  One  evening  after  prayers  the  Chaplain 
observed  this  poor  outcast  stealthily  kissing  the  shadow 
of  the  Matron  thrown  by  her  candle  upon  the  wall. 
He  saw  that  the  diseased  nature  was  beginning  to  be 
capable  of  assimilating  new  life,  that  the  victory  of 
wholesome  personal  influence  had  begun.  He  found 
reason  for  concluding  that  his  judgment  was  well 
founded. 

The  law  of  restoration  by  living  example  through 
personal  influence  pervades  the  whole  of  our  human 
relations  under  God's  natural  and  moral  government 
as  truly  as  the  principle  of  mediation.  This  law 
also  pervades  the  system  of  restoration  revealed  to 
us  by  Christianity.  It  is  one  of  the  chief  results 
of  the  Incarnation  itself.  It  begins  to  act  upon  us 
first,  when  the  Gospels  become  something  more  to 
us  than  a  mere  history,  when  we  realise  in  some 
degree  how  He  walked.  But  it  is  not  complete  until 
we  know  that  all  this  is  not  merely  of  the  past,  but 
of  the  present ;  that  He  is  not  dead,  but  living ; 
that  we  may  therefore  use  that  little  word  is  about 
Christ  in  the  lofty  sense  of  St.  John — "  even  as  He 
is  pure;"  "in  Him  is  no  sin;"  "even  as  He  is 
righteous  ;  "  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  If 
this  is  true,  as  it  undoubtedly  is,  of  all  good  human 
influence  personal  and  living,  is  it  not  true  of  the 
Personal  and  living  Christ  in  an  infinitely  higher 
degree  ?  If  the  shadow  of  Peter  overshadowing  the 
sick  had  some  strange  efficacy ;  if  handkerchiefs  or 
aprons  from  the  body  of  Paul  wrought  upon  the  sick 


122     THE  INFLUENCE   OF  THE   GREAT  LIFE    WALK 

and  possessed  ;  what  may  be  the  spiritual  result  of 
contact  with  Christ  Himself?  Of  one  of  those  men 
specially  gifted  to  raise  struggling  natures  and  of 
others  like  him,  a  true  poet  lately  taken  from  us  has 
Sling  in  one  of  his  most  glorious  strains.  Matthew 
Arnold  likens  mankind  to  a  host  inexorably  bound  by 
divine  appointment  to  march  over  mountain  and 
desert  to  the  city  of  God.  But  they  become  entangled 
in  the  wilderness  through  which  they  march,  split  into 
mutinous  factions,  and  are  in  danger  of  "  battering  on 
the  rocks  "  for  ever  in  vain,  of  dying  one  by  one  in 
the  waste.  Then  comes  the  poet's  appeal  to  the ' 
"  Servants  of  God  "  : — 

"  Then  in  the  hour  of  need 
Of  3'our  fainting  dispirited  racCi 
Ve  like  angels  appear ! 
Languor  is  not  in  jour  heart, 
Weakness  is  not  in  your  word^ 
Weariness  not  on  your  brow. 
Eyes  rekindling,  and  prayers 
Follow  your  steps  as  ye  go. 
Ye  fill  up  the  gaps  in  our  file^ 
Strengthen  tbe  wavering  line, 
Stablish,  continue  our  march- 
On,  to  the  bound  of  the  waste- 
On  to  the  City  of  God." ' 

If  all  this  be  true  of  the  personal  influence  of  good 
and  strong  men — true  in  proportion  to  their  goodness 
and  strength — it  must  be  true  of  the  influence  of  the 
Strongest  and  Best  with  Whom  we  are  brought  into 
personal  relation  by  prayer  and  sacraments,  and  by 
meditation  upon  the  sacred  record  which  tells  us  what 


•  Poems    by  Matthew    Arnold    ("Rugby    Chapel,"    Nov.     1857), 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  251,  255, 


ii.  C]  A   PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  123 

His  one  life-walk  was.  Strength  is  not  wanting  upon 
His  part,  for  He  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost.  Pity 
is  not  wanting ;  for  to  use  touching  words  (attributed 
to  St.  Paul  in  a  very  ancient  apocryphal  document), 
"He  alone  sympathised  with  a  world  that  has  lost 
its  way,"^ 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  in  that  of  which  St.  John 
speaks  lies  the  true  answer  to  an  objection,  formulated 
by  the  great  anti-christian  writer  above  quoted,  and 
constantly  repeated  by  others.  "  The  ideal  of  Christian 
morality,"  says  Mr.  Mill,  "  is  negative  rather  than 
positive  ;  passive  rather  than  active ;  innocence  rather 
than  nobleness ;  abstinence  from  evil,  rather  than 
energetic  pursuit  of  good  ;  in  its  precepts  (as  has  been 
well  said),  'thou  shalt  not'  predominates  unduly  over 
'  thou  shalt.'"^  The  answer  is  this.  (l)  A  true  religious 
system  must  have  a  distinct  moral  code.  If  not,  it  would 
be  justly  condemned  for  "  expressing  itself"  (in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Mill's  own  accusation  against  Christianity 
elsewhere)  "in  language  most  general,  and  possessing 
rather  the  impressiveness  of  poetry  or  eloquence  than 
the  precision  of  legislation."  But  the  necessary  formula 
of  precise  legislation  is,  "thou  shalt  not";  and  without 
this  it  cannot  be  precise.  (2)  But  further.  To  say  that 
Christian  legislation  is  negative,  a  mere  string  of  "  thou 
shalt  nots,"  is  just  such  a  superficial  accusation  as 
might  be  expected  from  a  man  who  should  enter  a 
church  upon  some  rare  occasion,  and  happen  to  listen 
to  the  ten  commandments,  but  fall  asleep  before  he 
could  hear  the  Epistle  and  Gospel.     The  philosopher 


'  8j  iibvoi  ffvveiraOrjaev  ir\ai>ufi^v(p  kSj/hij}.     Acta  Paul,  et  Thee.  1 6, 
Ada.  Apost.  Apoc.  47.     Edit.  Tischendorf. 
'  On  Liberty,     John  Stuart  Mill  (chap.  iii.^. 


124     THE  INFLUENCE   OF  THE   GREAT  LIFE    WALK 

of  duty,  Kant,  has  told  us  that  the  peculiarity  of  a 
moral  principle,  of  any  proposition  which  states  what 
duty  is,  is  to  convey  the  meaning  of  an  imperative 
through  the  form  of  an  indicative.  In  his  own  expres- 
sive if  pedantic  language — "  its  categorical  form  involves 
an  epitactic  meaning."  St.  John  asserts  that  the 
Christian  "  ought  to  walk  even  as  Christ  walked." 
To  every  one  who  receives  it,  that  proposition  is  there- 
fore precisely  equivalent  to  a  command — "  walk  as  Christ 
walked."  Is  it  a  negative,  passive  morality,  a  mere 
system  of  "  thou  shalt  not,"  which  contains  such  a 
precept  as  that  ?  Does  not  the  Christian  religion  in 
virtue  of  this  alone  enforce  a  great  "  thou  shalt ;  "  which 
every  man  who  brings  himself  within  its  range  will 
find  rising  with  him  in  the  morning,  following  him  like 
his  shadow  all  day  long,  and  lying  down  with  him  when 
he  goes  to  rest  ? 

II. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  in  the  words 
"  even  as  He  walked,"  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  is  both 
referred  to  and  attested. 

For  surely  to  point  with  any  degree  of  moral 
seriousness  to  an  example,  is  to  presuppose  some  clear 
knowledge  and  definite  record  of  it.  No  example  can 
be  beautiful  or  instructive  when  its  shape  is  lost  in 
darkness.  It  has  indeed  been  said  by  a  deeply 
religious  writer,  "  that  the  likeness  of  the  Christian 
to  Christ  is  to  His  character,  not  to  the  particular  form 
in  which  it  was  historically  manifested."  And  this, 
of  course,  is  in  one  sense  a  truism.  But  how  else 
except  by  this  historical  manifestation  can  we  know 
the  character  of  Christ  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word 
knowledge  ?    For  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  fourth 


ii.6.]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  125 

Gospel,  the  term  "  walk"  was  tenderly  signiPcant.  For 
if  it  was  used  with  a  reminiscence  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  of  the  language  of  our  Lord/  to  denote  the  whole 
continuous  activity  of  the  life  of  any  man  inward  and 
outward,  there  was  another  signification  which  became 
entwined  with  it.  St.  John  had  used  the  word  his- 
torically* in  his  Gospel,  not  without  allusion  to  the 
Saviour's  homelessness  on  earth,  to  His  itinerant  life 
:/f  beneficence  and  of  teaching.'  Those  who  first 
received  this  Epistle  with  deepest  reverence  as  the 
utterance  of  the  Apostle  whom  they  loved,  when  they 
came  to  the  precept — "  walk  even  as  He  walked" — would 
ask  themselves  how  did  He  walk  ?  What  do  we  know 
of  the  great  rule  of  life  thus  proposed  to  us  ?  The 
Gospel  which  accompanied  this  letter,  and  with  which 
it  was  in  some  way  closely  connected,  was  a  sufficient 
and  definite  answer. 

III. 

The  character  of  Christ  in  his  Gospel  is  thus,  ac- 
cording to  St.  John,  the  loftiest  ideal  of  purity,  peace, 
self-saci  ifice,  unbroken  communion  with  God  ;  the  inex- 
haustible fountain  of  regulated  thoughts,  high  aims, 
holy  action,  constant  prayer. 

We  may  advert  to  one  aspect  of  this  perfection  as 
delineated  in  the  fourth  Gospel — our  Lord's  way  of 
doing  small  things,  or  at  least  things  which  in  human 
estimation  appear  to  be  small. 

The  fourth  chapter  of  that  Gospel  contains  a  mar- 
vellous record  of  word  and  work.     Let  us  trace  that 

*  John  viii.  12-35.  For  Apostolic  usage  of  the  word,  see  Acts  i.  21} 
Rom,  vi.  4;  Ephes.  ii.  10;  Col.  iii.  7. 

*  John  vii,  I. 

*  "Ambulando  docebat." — Bretschnetder, 


126    THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  GREAT  LIFE   WALK 

record  back  to  its  beginning.  There  are  seeds  of 
spiritual  life  scattered  in  many  hearts  which  were 
destined  to  yield  a  rich  harvest  in  due  time ;  there  is 
the  account  of  one  sensuous  nature,  quickened  and 
spiritualised  ;  there  are  promises  which  have  been  for 
successive  centuries  as  a  river  of  God  to  weary  natures. 
All  these  results  issue  from  three  words  spoken  by  a 
tired  traveller,  sitting  naturally  over  a  well — "  give  me 
to  drink." 

We  take  another  instance.  There  is  one  passage  in 
St.  John's  Gospel  which  divides  with  the  procEmium 
of  his  Epistle,  the  glory  of  being  the  loftiest,  the  most 
prolonged,  the  most  sustained,  in  the  Apostle's  writings. 

It  is  the  prelude  of  a  work  which  might  have  seemed 
to  be  of  little  moment.  Yet  all  the  height  of  a  great 
ideal  is  over  it,  like  the  vault  of  heaven  ;  all  the  power 
of  a  Divine  purpose  is  under  it,  like  the  strength  of  the 
great  deep  ;  all  the  consciousness  of  His  death,  of  His 
ascension,  of  His  coming  dominion,  of  His  Divine 
origin,  of  His  session  at  God's  right  hand — all  the 
hoarded  love  in  His  heart  for  His  own  which  were  in 
the  world — passes  by  some  mysterious  transference  into 
that  little  incident  of  tenderness  and  of  humiliation. 
He  sets  an  everlasting  mark  upon  it,  not  by  a  basin 
of  gold  crusted  with  gems,  nor  by  mixing  precious 
scents  with  the  water  which  He  poured  out,  nor  by 
using  linen  of  the  finest  tissue,  but  by  the  absolute 
perfection  of  love  and  dutiful  humility  in  the  spirit  and 
in  every  detail  of  the  whole  action.  It  is  one  more 
of  those  little  chinks  through  which  the'  whole  sun- 
shine of  heaven  streams  in  upon  those  who  have  eyes 
to  see.^ 

'  John  xiii.  1-6. 


ii.  6,]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  127 

The  underlying  secret  of  this  feature  of  our  Lord's 
character  is  told  by  Himself.  "  My  meat  is  to  be  ever 
doing  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and  so  when  the 
time  comes  by  one  great  decisive  act  to  finish  His 
work."  ^  All  along  the  course  of  that  life-walk  there 
were  smaller  preludes  to  the  great  act  which  won  our 
redemption — multitudinous  daily  little  perfect  epitomes 
of  love  and  sacrifice,  without  which  the  crowning 
sacrifice  would  not  have  been  what  it  was.  The  plan 
of  our  life  must,  of  course,  be  constructed  on  a  scale 
as  different  as  the  human  from  the  Divine.  Yet  there 
is  a  true  sense  in  which  this  lesson  of  the  great  life 
may  be  applied  to  us. 

The  apparently  small  things  of  life  must  not  be 
despised  or  neglected  on  account  of  their  smallness, 
by  those  who  would  follow  the  precept  of  St.  John. 
Patience  and  diligence  in  petty  trades,  in  services  called 
menial,  in  waiting  on  the  sick  and  old,  in  a  hundred 
such  works,  all  come  within  the  sweep  of  this  net,  with 
its  lines  that  look  as  thin  as  cobwebs,  and  which  yet 
for  Christian  hearts  are  stronger  than  fibres  of  steel — ■ 
*  \Mlk  even  as  He  walked."  This,  too,  is  our  only 
security.  A  French  poet  has  told  a  beautiful  tale. 
Near  a  river  which  runs  between  French  and  German 
territory,  a  blacksmith  was  at  work  one  snowy  night 
near  Christmas  time.  He  was  tired  out,  standing  by 
his  forge,  and  wistfully  looking  towards  his  little  home, 
lighted  up  a  short  quarter  of  a  mile  away,  and  wife  and 
children  waiting  for  their  festal  supper,  when  he  should 
return.  It  came  to  the  last  piece  of  his  work,  a  rivet 
which  it  was  diflficult  to  finish  properly ;  for  it  was 
of  peculiar    shape,    intended    by    the    contractor   who 

*  ^»'0  iroiw      .  .  Koi  reKeiwffu  (John  iv.  34). 


128    THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE   GREAT  LIFE   WALK 

employed  him  to  pin  the  metal  work  of  a  bridge  which 
he  was  constructing  over  the  river.  The  smith  was 
sorely  tempted  to  fail  in  giving  honest  work,  to  hurry 
over  a  job  which  seemed  at  once  so  troublesome  and 
so  trjning.  But  some  good  angel  whispered  to  the 
man  that  he  should  do  his  best.  He  turned  to  the 
forge  with  a  sigh,  and  never  rested  until  the  work  was 
as  complete  as  his  skill  could  make  it.  The  poet 
carries  us  on  for  a  year  or  two.  War  breaks  out.  A 
squadron  of  the  blacksmith's  countrymen  is  driven 
over  the  bridge  in  headlong  flight.  Men,  horses,  guns, 
try  its  solidity.  For  a  moment  or  two  the  whole 
weight  of  the  mass  really  hangs  upon  the  one  rivet. 
There  are  times  in  life  when  the  whole  weight  of  the 
soul  also  hangs  upon  a  rivet ;  the  rivet  of  sobriety,  of 
purity,  of  honesty,  of  command  of  temper.  Possibly 
we  have  devoted  little  or  no  honest  work  to  it  in 
the  years  when  we  should  have  perfected  the  work  ; 
and  so,  in  the  day  of  trial,  the  rivet  snaps,  and  we 
are  lost. 

There  is  one  word  of  encouragement  which  should 
be  finally  spoken  for  the  sake  of  one  class  of  God's 
servants. 

Some  are  sick,  weary,  broken,  paralysed,  it  may  be 
slowly  dying.  What — they  sometimes  think — have 
we  to  do  with  this  precept  ?  Others  who  have  hope, 
elasticity,  capacity  of  service,  may  walk  as  He  walked  ; 
but  we  can  scarcely  do  so.  Such  persons  should 
remember  what  walking  in  the  Christian  sense  is — all 
life's  activity  inward  and  outward.  Let  them  think 
of  Christ  upon  His  cross.  He  was  fi,xed  to  it,  nailed 
hand  and  foot.  Nailed ;  yet  never — not  when  He  trod 
upon  the  waves,  not  when  He  moved  upward  through 
the  air  to  His  throne — never  did  He  walk  more  truly, 


ii.6.]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  I2y 

because  He  walked  in  the  way  of  perfect  love.  It  is 
just  whilst  looking  at  the  moveless  form  upon  the  tree 
that  we  may  hear  most  touchingly  the  great  "thou  shalt " 
— thou  shalt  walk  even  as  He  walked. 

IV. 

As  there  is  a  literal,  so  there  is  a  mystical  walking 
as  Christ  walked.  This  is  an  idea  which  deeply  pervades 
St.  Paul's  writings.  Is  it  His  birth  ?  We  are  born 
again.  Is  it  His  life  ?  We  walk  with  Him  in  newness 
of  life.  Is  it  His  death  ?  We  are  crucified  with  Him. 
Is  it  His  burial  ?  We  are  buried  with  Him.  Is  it 
His  resurrection  ?  We  are  risen  again  with  Him.  Is 
it  His  ascension — His  very  session  at  God's  right  hand  ? 
"  He  hath  raised  us  up  and  made  us  sit  together  with 
Him  in  heavenly  places."  They  know  nothing  of  St. 
Paul's  mind  who  know  nothing  of  this  image  of  a  soul 
seen  in  the  very  dust  of  death,  loved,  pardoned, 
.  quickened,  elevated,  crowned,  throned.  It  was  this 
conception  at  work  from  the  beginning  in  the  general 
consciousness  of  Christians  which  moulded  round  itself 
the  order  of  the  Christian  year. 

It  will  illustrate  this  idea  for  us  if  we  think  of  the 
difference  between  the  outside  and  the  inside  of  a 
church. 

Outside  on  some  high  spire  we  see  the  light  just 
lingering  far  up,  while  the  shadows  are  coldly  gathering 
in  the  streets  below ;  and  we  know  that  it  is  winter. 
Again  the  evening  falls  warm  and  golden  on  the  church- 
yard, and  we  recognise  the  touch  of  summer.  But  inside 
it  is  always  God's  weather;  it  is  Christ  all  the  year 
long.  Now  the  Babe  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  or 
circumcised  with  the  knife  of  the  law,  manifested  to 

9 


130    THE  INFLUENCE   OF  THE   GREAT  LIFE   WALK 

the  Gentiles,  or  manifesting  Himself  with  a  glory  that 
breaks  through  the  veil ;  now  the  Man  tempted  in  the 
wilderness ;  now  the  victim  dying  on  the  cross  ;  now 
the  Victor  risen,  ascended,  sending  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
now  for  twenty-live  Sundays  worshipped  as  the  Ever- 
lasting Word  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  In 
this  mystical  following  of  Christ  also,  the  one  perpetual 
lesson  is — "  he  that  saith  he  abideth  in  Him,  ought 
himself  also  so  to  walk  even  as  He  walked." 

NOTES. 
Ch.  ii.  3-11. 

Vet.  4.  A  liar. "^^  There  are  many  things  which  the  "sayer" 
says  by  the  language  of  his  life  rather  than  by  his  lips  to 
others:  many  things  which  he  says  to  himself.  "We  lead 
ourselves  astray"  (i.  8).  We  "say"  I  have  knowledge  of 
Him,  while  yet  we  observe  not  His  commandments.  Strange 
that  we  can  lie  to  the  one  being  who  knows  the  truth 
thoroughly — self;  and  having  lied,  can  get  the  lie  believed,^ 

"  Like  one, 
Who  having,  unto  truth,  by  telling  of  it* 
Made  such  a  sinner  of  his  memory, 
To  credit  his  own  lie." 

Tempest,  Act  I.  Sc.  2. 

Ver.  7.  Fresh^  There  are  two  quite  different  words  alike 
translated  new  in  A.  V.  :  one  of  these  is  the  word  used  here 
{Kawoi);  the  other  (utos).  The  first  always  signifies  w^zy  in 
quality — intellectual,  ethical,  spiritual  novelty — that  which  is 
opposed  to,  which  replaces  and  supersedes,  the  antiquated, 
inferior,  outworn  ;  new  in  the  world  of  thought.  (Heb.  viii.  13 
states  this  with  perfect  precision.)  It  may  sometimes  not 
inadequately  be  rendered  fresh  ("youngly,"  Shakespeare, 
Coriolanus').  The  other  term  (mos)  is  simply  recent ;  new 
chronologically  in  the  world  of  time. 

Which  ye  heard  from  the  beginning.']  Probably  a  recog- 
nition of  St.  Paul's  teaching  at  Ephesus,  and  of  his  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians. 


ii.6.]  A  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.  \%X 

Ver.  8.  To  many  commentators  this  verse  seems  almost  of 
insoluble  difSculty.  Surely,  however,  the  meaning  is  clear 
enough  for  those  who  will  place  themselves  within  the  atmo- 
sphere of  St.  John's  thought.  "  Again  a  fresh  commandment 
I  am  writing  to  you"  [this  commandment,  charity,  is  no  unreal 
and  therefore  delusive  standard  of  duty].  Taken  as  one 
great  "  whole  "  (ci)  "it  is  true,"  matter  of  observable  historical 
fact,  because  it  is  realised  in  Him  who  gave  the  command- 
ment ;  capable  of  realisation,  and  even  in  measure  realised  in 
you.  [And  this  can  be  actually  done  by  Christians,  and  re- 
cognised more  and  more  by  others],  "because  the  shadow  is 
drifting  by  from  the  landscape  even  of  the  world,  and  the 
light,  the  very  light,  enlighteneth  by  a  new  ideal  and  a  new 
example." 

Ver.  10.  Scandal.'\  In  Greek  is  the  rendering  of  two 
Hebrew  words,  (i)  That  against  which  we  trip  and  stumble, 
a  stumbling-block  ;  (2)  A  hook  or  snare. 

Ver.  II.  The  terrible  force  of  this  truly  Hebraistic  parallelism 
should  be  noted. 

1.  He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  in  darkness. 

2.  „  „  „         walketh  in  darkness. 

3.  ,,  „  „        knoweth  not  where  he  goeth. 

4.  ,,  ,,  ,,         darkness  has  blinded  his  eyes. 
The  third  beat  of  the  parallelism  contains  an  allusion  to 

that  Cain  among  the  nations,  the  Jewish  people  in  our  Lord's 
time.     (John  xii.  35.) 

In  illustration  of  the  powerful  expression,  ("darkness  has 
blinded  his  eyes")  the  present  writer  quoted  a  striking  passage 
from  Professor  Drummond,  who  adduces  a  parallel  for  the 
Christian's  loss  ofthe  spiritual  faculty,  by  the  atrophy  of  organs 
which  takes  place  in  moles,  and  in  the  fish  in  dark  caverns. 
(^Speaker s  Commentary ,  in  loc.)  But  as  regards  the  mole  at 
least,  a  great  observer  of  Nature  entirely  denies  the  alleged 
atrophy.  Mr.  Buckland  quotes  Dr.  Lee  in  a  paper,  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society,  where  he  says,—"  the  eye 
of  the  mole  presents  us  with  an  instance  of  an  organ  which  is 
rudimentary,  not  by  arrest  of  development,  but  through  disuse, 
aided  perhaps  by  natural  selection."  But  Mr.  Buckland 
asserts  that  "  the  same  great  Wisdom  who  made  the  mole's 
teeth   the  most  beautiful  set  of  insectivorous  teeth  among 


132     THE  INFIVENCE  OF  THE  GREAT  LIFE   WALK. 

animals,  also  made  its  eye  fit  for  the  work  it  has  to  do.  The 
mole  has  been  designed  to  prey  upon  earthworms  ;  they  will 
not  come  up  to  the  surface  to  him,  so  he  must  go  down  into 
the  earth  to  them.  For  this  purpose  his  eyes  are  fitted." 
{^Life  of  F.  Buckland,  pp.  247,  248). 


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DISCOURSE   VI. 

THE    WORLD    WHICH  WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE, 

'Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world. 
If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  For 
all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes, 
and  the  pride  of  life,  is  not  of  the  Father,  but  of  the  world." — I  John 
ii.  15,  1 6. 

AN  adequate  development  of  words  so  compressed 
and  pregnant  as  these  would  require  a  separate 
treatise,  or  series  of  treatises.^  But  if  we  succeed  in 
grasping  St.  John's  conception  of  the  ivorld,  we  shall 
have  a  key  that  will  open  to  us  this  cabinet  of  spiritual 
thought. 

I. 

In  the  writings  of  St.  John  the  world  is  always  found 
in  one  or  other  of  four  senses,  as  may  be  decided  by 
the  context,     (i)  It  means  the  creation,^  the  universe. 

'  After  all  deductions  for  the  lack  of  accurate  and  searching  textual 
exegesis,  perhaps  Bossuet's  "Traite  de  la  concupiscence,  ou  Exposition 
de  ces  Paroles  de  Saint  Jean,  I  John  ii.  15-17  "  {CEuvres  de  Bossuet, 
Tom.  vii.,  380-420),  remains  unrivalled. 

'  The  word  Kbap-o^  originally  signified  ornament  (chiefly  perhaps 
of  dress)  ;  figuratively  it  came  to  denote  order.  It  was  first  applied 
by  P^-thagoras  to  the  universe,  from  the  conception  of  the  order, 
which  reigns  in  it  (Plut.,  de  Plac.  Phil.,  ii.  i).  From  schools  of  philo- 
sophy it  passed  into  the  language  of  poets  and  writers  of  elevated 
prose.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  Romans,  perhaps  from  Greek 
influence,  came  to  apply  "mundus"  by  the  same  process  to  the  world, 
as  it  had  also  originally  signified  ornament,  especially  of  female  dress 


ii.  15,  i6.]     THE   WORLD   WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  137 

So  our  Lord  in  His  High-priestly  prayer — "  Thou 
lovedst  Me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  ^  (2)  It 
is  used  for  the  earth  locally  as  the  place  where  man 
resides;^  and  whose  soil  the  Son  of  God  trod  for 
awhile.  "  I  am  no  more  in  the  world,  but  these  are 
in  the  world." ^  (3)  It  denotes  the  chief  inhabitants  of 
the  earth,  they  to  whom  the  counsels  of  God  mainly 
point — men  universally.  Such  a  transference  is  com- 
mon in  nearly  all  languages.  Both  the  inhabitants  of 
a  building,  and  the  material  structure  which  contains 
them,  are  called  "a  house;"  and  the  inhabitants  are 
frequently  bitterly  blamed,  while  the  beauty  of  the  struc- 
ture is  passionately  admired.  In  this  sense  there  is  a 
magnificent  width  in  the  word  world.  We  cannot  but 
feel  indignant  at  attempts  to  gird  its  grandeur  within 
the  narrow  rim  of  a  human  system.  "  The  bread  that 
I  will  give,"  said  He  who  knew  best,  "is  My  flesh 
which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world."*  "  He  is 
the  propitiation  for  the  whole  world,"  writes  the  Apostle 
at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter.  In  this  sense,  if  we 
would  imitate  Christ,  if  we  would  aspire  to  the  Father's 
perfection,  "  love  not  the  world  "  must  be  tempered  by 
that  other  tender  oracle — "  God  so  loved  the  world."  ^ 

(See  Richard  Bentley  against  Boyle,  Opera  Philol.,  347-445,  and  Notes, 
Humboldt's  Cosmos,  xiii.).  In  the  LXX.  K!i<TfMos  does  not  appear 
as  the  translation  of  D^fU  its  spiritual  equivalent  in  Hebrew;  but 
very  often  in  the  sense  of  " ornament "  and  "order."  (See  Tromm., 
Concord.  Gr.  in  LXX.,  i,  913),  but  it  is  found  as  wor/rf  several  times 
in  the  Apocrj'pha  (Wisdom  vi.  26,  vii.  18,  ix.  3,  xi.  18,  xv.  14;  2  Mac 
iii,  12,  vii.  9-23,  viii.  18,  xiii.  14. 
'  John  xvii.  24. 

*  In  Hebrew  7?J^   habitable  globe;    translated  olKov/iivr]  in  LXX. 
(see  Psalm  Ixxxix.  II). 

*  John  V.  II. 

*  John  vi.  31 ;  I  John  ii.  i, 

'  John  iii.  16.     It  may  be  added  that  these  are  p-jssagea  where  the 


138  THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE 

In  none  of  these  senses  can  the  world  here  be  under- 
stood.^ 

There  remains  then  (4)  a  fourth  signification,  which 
has  two  allied  shades  of  thought.  World  is  employed 
to  cover  the  whole  present  existence,  with  its  blended 
good  and  evil — susceptible  of  elevation  by  grace,  sus- 
ceptible also  of  deeper  depths  of  sin  and  ruin.  But  yet 
again  the  indifferent  meaning  passes  into  one  that  is 
wholly  evil,  wholly  within  a  region  of  darkness.  The 
first  creation  was  pronounced  by  God  in  each  depart- 
ment "  good "  collectively ;  when  crowned  by  God's 
masterpiece  in  man,  "verygood."^  "All  things,"  our 
Apostle  tells  us,  "  were  made  through  Him  (the  Word), 
and  without  Him  was  not  any  thing  made  that  was 
made."^  But  as  that  was  a  world  wholly  good,  so  is 
this  a  world  wholly  evil.  This  evil  world  is  not  God's 
creation,  drew  not  its  origin  from  Him.  All  that  is  m  it 
came  out  from  it,  from  nothing  higher}  This  wholly  evil 
world  is  not  the  material  creation  ;  if  it  were,  we  should 
be  landed  in  dualism,  or  Manicheism.  It  is  not  an  entity, 
an  actual  tangible  thing,  a  creation.  It  is  not  of  God's 
world  that  St.  John  cries  in  that  last  fierce  word  of 
abhorrence  which  he  flings  at  it  as  he  sees  the  shadowy 
thing  like  an  evil  spirit  made  visible  in  an  idol's  arms — 
"the  world  lieth  wholly  in  the  evil  one."* 

This    anti-world,    this    caricature   of    creation,    this 

world  as  humanity  generally  passes  into  the  darker  meaning  of  that 
portion  of  it  which  is  actively  hostile  to  God.     John  xv.  l8,  19. 

*  See  note  on  ver.  16  at  the  end  of  the  next  Discourse, 

*  Gen.  i.  31. 

*  John  i.  3. 

*  The  writer  does  not  happen  to  remember  any  commentator  who 
has  pointed  out  this  subtle  but  powerful  thought,  tolv  rb  iv  t^ 
K6cft<{> — iK  Tov  Kbcixov  iffrlv  (l  John  ii.  16). 

*  I  John  V.  19. 


ii.  IS,  i6.]      THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  139 

thing  of  negations,  is  spun  out  of  three  abuses  of  the 
endowment  of  God's  glorious  gift  of  free-will  to  man  ;  out 
of  three  noble  instincts  ignobly  used.  First,  "the  lust 
of  the  flesh  " — of  which  flesh  is  the  seat,  and  supplies 
the  organic  medium  through  which  it  works.  The  flesh 
is  that  softer  part  of  the  frame  which  by  the  network 
of  the  nerves  is  intensely  susceptible  of  pleasurable 
and  painful  sensations;  capable  of  heroic  patient  sub- 
mission to  the  higher  principles  of  conscience  and 
spirit,^  capable  also  of  frightful  rebellion.  Of  all 
theologians  St.  John  is  the  least  likely  to  fall  into  the 
exaggeration  of  libelling  the  flesh  as  essentially  evil. 
Is  it  not  he  who,  whether  in  his  Gospel,  or  in  his 
Epistles,  delights  to  speak  of  the  Jlesh  of  Jesus,  to 
record  words  in  which  He  refers  to  it  ?^  Still  the  flesh 
brings  us  into  contact  with  all  sins  which  are  sins  that 
spring  from,  and  end  in,  the  senses.  Shall  we  ask  for 
a  catalogue  of  particulars  from  St.  John  ?  Nay,  we 
cannot  expect  that  the  virgin  Apostle,  who  received 
the  virgin  Mother  from  the  Virgin  Lord  upon  the 
cross,  will  sully  his  virgin  pen  with  words  so  abhorred. 
When  he  has  uttered  the  lust  of  the  Jlesh  his  shudder 
is  followed  by  an  eloquent  silence.  We  can  fill  up 
the  blank  too  well — drunkenness,  gluttony,  thoughts 
and  motions  which  spring  from  deliberate,  wilfully 
cherished,  rebellious  sensuality ;  which  fill  many  of 
us  with  pain  and  fear,  and  wring  cries  and  bitter 
tears  from  penitents,  and  even  from  saints.  The 
second,  abuse  of  free-will,  the  second  element  in  this 
world  which  is  not  God's  world,  is  the  desire  of  which 
the  eyes  are  the  seat — "  the  lust  of  the  eyes."      To 

'  John  xiv.  I  ;  I  John  iv.  2,  3 ;  2  John  7. 

•  John  vi.  51,  53-56;  I  John  iv.  2,  3  ;  2  John  7. 


I40  TkE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE. 

the  two  sins  which  we  instinctively  associate  with  this 
phrase — voluptuousness  and  curiosity  of  the  senses  or 
the  soul — Scripture  might  seem  to  add  envy,  which 
derives  so  much  of  its  aliment  from  sight.  In  this 
lies  the  Christian's  warning  against  wilfully  indulging 
in  evil  sights,  bad  plays,  bad  books,  bad  pictures.  He 
who  is  outwardly  the  spectator  of  these  things  becomes 
inwardly  the  actor  of  them.  The  eye  is,  so  to  speak,  the 
burning-glass  of  the  soul ;  it  draws  the  rays  from  their 
evil  brightness  to  a  focus,  and  may  kindle  a  raging  fire 
in  the  heart.  Under  this  department  comes  unregulated 
spiritual  or  intellectual  curiosity.  The  first  need  not 
trouble  us  so  much  as  it  did  Christians  in  a  more  believ- 
ing time.  Comparatively  very  {^"^  are  in  danger  from  the 
planchette  or  from  astrology.  But  surely  it  is  a  rash  thing 
for  an  ordinary  mind,  without  a  clear  call  of  duty,  without 
any  adequate  preparation,  to  place  its  faith  within  the 
deadly  grip  of  some  powerful  adversary.  People  really 
seem  to  have  absolutely  no  conscience  about  reading 
anything — the  last  philosophical  Life  of  Christ,  or  the 
last  romance ;  of  which  the  titles  might  be  with  advan- 
tage exchanged,  for  the  philosophical  history  is  a  light 
romance,  and  the  romance  is  a  heavy  philosophy.  The 
third  constituent  in  the  evil  anti-trinity  of  the  anti- 
world  is  "  the  pride"  (the  arrogancy,  gasconade,  almost 
swagger)  of  life,"  of  which  the  lower  life^  is  the  seat. 
The  thought  is  not  so  much  of  outward  pomp  and 
ostentation  as  of  that  false  pride  which  arises  in  the 
heart.  The  arrogancy  is  within ;  the  gasconade  plays 
its  "  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven."  And  each  of 
these  three  elements  (making  up  as  they  do  collectively 
all   that  is  "in  the  world"  and  springing  out  of  the 

'   7]  aXn^ovla  tov  ftlov. 


ii.  IS,  i6.]     THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  141 

world)  is  not  a  substantive  thing,  not  an  original  in- 
gredient of  man's  nature,  or  among  the  forms  of  God's 
world ;  it  is  the  perversion  of  an  element  which  had 
a  use  that  was  noble,  or  at  least  innocent.  For  first 
comes  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh."  Take  those  two  objects 
to  which  this  lust  turns  with  a  fierce  and  perverted 
passion.  The  possession  of  flesh  in  itself  leads  man  to 
crave  for  the  necessary  support  to  his  native  weakness. 
The  mutual  craving  for  the  love  of  beings  so  like  and 
so  unlike  as  man  and  woman,  if  it  be  a  weakness,  has 
at  least  a  most  touching  and  exquisite  side.  Again,  is 
not  a  3'earning  for  beauty  gratified  through  the  eyes  ? 
Were  they  not  given  for  the  enjoyment,  for  the  teach- 
ing, at  once  high  and  sweet,  of  Nature  and  of  Art  ? 
Art  may  be  a  moral  and  spiritual  discipline.  The 
ideas  of  Beauty  from  gifted  minds  by  cunning  hands 
transferred  to,  and  stamped  upon,  outward  things,  come 
from  the  ancient  and  uncreated  Beauty,  whose  beauty 
is  as  perfect  as  His  truth  and  strength.  Still  further; 
in  the  lower  life,  and  in  its  lawful  use,  there  was  in- 
tended to  be  a  something  of  quiet  satisfaction,  a  certain 
restfulness,  at  times  making  us  happy  and  triumphant. 
And  lo  !  for  all  this,  not  moderate  fare  and  pure  love, 
not  thoughtful  curiosity  and  the  sweet  pensiveness  which 
is  the  best  tribute  to  the  beautiful — not  a  Avise  humility 
which  makes  us  feel  that  our  times  are  in  God's  hands 
and  our  means  His  continual  gift — but  degraded  senses, 
low  ajt,  evil  literature,  a  pride  which  is  as  grovelling 
as  it  is  godless. 

These  three  typical  summaries  of  the  evil  tendencies 
in  the  exercise  of  free-will  correspond  with  a  remarkable 
fulness  to  the  two  narratives  of  trial  which  give  us  the 
compendium  and  general  outline  of  all  human  temptation. 

Our  Lord's  three  temptations  answer  to  this  division. 


142  THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE. 

The  lust  of  the  flesh  is  in  essence  the  rebellion  of 
the  lower  appetites,  inherent  to  creaturely  dependence, 
against  the  higher  principle  or  law.  The  nearest  and 
only  conceivable  approach  to  this  in  the  sinless  Man 
would  be  in  His  seeking  lawful  support  by  unlawful 
means — procuring  food  by  a  miraculous  exertion  of 
power,  which  only  would  have  become  sinful,  or  short  of 
the  highest  goodness,  by  some  condition  of  its  exercise 
at  that  time  and  in  that  place.  An  appeal  to  the  desire 
for  beauty  and  glory,  with  an  implied  hint  of  using 
them  for  God's  greater  honour,  is  the  essence  of  the 
second  temptation  ;  the  one  possible  approximation  to 
the  *'  lust  of  the  eyes  "  in  that  perfect  character.  The 
interior  deception  of  some  touch  of  pride  in  the  visible 
support  of  angels  wafting  the  Son  of  God  through  the 
air  is  Satan's  one  sinister  way  of  insinuating  to  the 
Saviour  something  akin  to  "  the  pride  of  life.'' 

In  the  case  of  the  other  earlier  typical  trials  it 
will  be  observed  that  while  the  temptations  fit  into 
the  same  threefold  framework,  they  are  placed  in  an 
order  which  exactly  reverses  that  of  St.  John.  For 
in  Eden  the  first  approach  is  through  "  pride " ;  the 
magnificent  promise  of  elevation  in  the  scale  of  being, 
of  the  knowledge  that  would  win  the  wonder  of  the 
spiritual  world.  "  For  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day 
ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye 
shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil."^  The  next 
step  is  that  which  directs  the  curiosity  both  of  the 
senses  and  of  the  aspiring  mind  to  the  object  forbidden — 
"  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food, 
and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be 
desired  to  make  one  wise."  ^    Then  seems  to  have  come 

'  Gen.  iii.  5.  *  Gen.  iii.  6. 


ii.  IS,  i6.]     THE    WORLD   WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  143 

some  strange  and  sad  rebellion  of  the  lower  nature,  filling 
their  souls  with  shame ;  some  bitter  revelation  of  the 
law  of  sin  in  their  members ;  some  knowledge  that  they 
were  contaminated  by  the  "lust  of  the  flesh." ^  The 
order  of  the  temptation  in  the  narrative  of  Moses  is 
historical ;  St.  John's  order  is  moral  and  spiritual, 
answering  to  the  facts  of  hfe.  The  "lust  of  the  flesh" 
which  may  approach  the  child  through  childish  greed, 
grows  apace.  At  first  it  is  half  unconscious ;  then  it 
becomes  coarse  and  palpable.  In  the  man's  desire 
acting  with  unregulated  curiosity,  through  ambition  of 
knowledge  at  any  price,  searching  out  for  itself  books 
and  other  instruments  with  deliberate  desire  to  kindle 
lust,  the  "lust  of  the  eyes"  ceases  not  its  fatal  influence. 
The  crowning  sin  of  pride  with  its  selfishness,  which 
is  self  apart  from  God  as  well  as  from  the  brother, 
finds  its  place  in  the  "pride  of  life." 

III. 

We  may  now  be  in  a  position  to  see  more  clearly 
against  what  world  the  Primate  of  early  Christendom 
pronounced  his  anathema,  and  launched  his  interdict, 
and  why  ? 

What  "  world  "  did  he  denounce  ? 

Clearly  not  the  world  as  the  creation,  the  universe. 
Not  again  the  earth  locally.  God  made  and  ordered  all 
things.  Why  should  we  not  love  them  with  a  holy  and 
a  blameless  love  ?  Only  we  should  not  love  them  in 
themselves  ;  we  should  not  cling  to  them  forgetting 
Him.  Suppose  that  some  husband  heaped  beautiful 
and  costly  presents  upon  his  wife  whom  he  loved.  At 
last  with  the  intuition  of  love  he  begins  to  see  what 

'  Gen.  iii.  7. 


144  THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE. 


is  the  secret  of  such  cold  imitation  of  love  as  that  icy 
heart  can  give.  She  loves  him  not — his  riches,  not 
the  man ;  his  gifts,  not  the  giver.  And  thus  loving  with 
that  frigid  love  which  has  no  heart  in  it,  there  is  no 
true  love ;  her  heart  is  another's.  Gifts  are  given  that 
the  giver  may  be  loved  in  them.  If  it  is  true  that 
"  gifts  are  nought  when  givers  prove  unkind,"  it  is 
also  true  that  there  is  a  sort  of  adultery  of  the  heart 
when  the  taker  is  unkind — because  the  gift  is  valuable, 
not  because  the  bestower  is  dear.^  And  so  the  world, 
God's  beautiful  world,  now  becomes  to  us  an  idol.  If 
we  are  so  lost  in  the  possession  of  Nature,  in  the  march 
of  law,  in  the  majestic  growth,  in  the  stars  above  and 
in  the  plants  below,  that  we  forget  the  Lawgiver,  who 
from  such  humble  beginnings  has  brought  out  a  world 
of  beauty  and  order ;  if  with  modern  poets  we  find 
content,  calm,  happiness,  purity,  rest,  simply  in  con- 
templating the  glaciers,  the  waves,  and  the  stars;  then 
we  look  at  the  world  even  in  this  sense  in  a  way  which 
is  a  violation  of  St.  John's  rule.  Yet  again,  the  world 
which  is  now  condemned  is  not  humanity.  There  is 
no  real  Christianity  in  taking  black  views,  and  speaking 
bitter  things,  about  the  human  society  to  which  we 
belong,  and  the  human  nature  of  which  we  are  par- 
takers. No  doubt  Christianity  believes  that  man  "is 
very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness ; "  that  there 
is  a  "corruption  in  the  nature  of  every  man  that 
naturally  is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam." 
Yet  the  utterers  of  unwholesome  apophthegms,  the 
suspecters  of  their  kind,  are  not  Christian  thinkers. 
The  philosophic  historian,  whose  gorge  rose  at  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Fall,  thoight  much  worse  of  man  practically 

'  S.  Augustin.,  Tract,  injoamt.  Eptst. 


ii.  IS,  i6.]      THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  I45 

than  the  Fathers  of  the  Church.  They  bowed  before 
martyrdom  and  purity,  and  beheved  in  them  with  a 
child-Uke  faith.  For  Gibbon,  the  martyr  was  not  quite 
so  true,  nor  the  virgin  quite  so  pure,  nor  the  saint 
quite  so  holy.  He  Who  knew  human  nature  best,  Who 
has  thrown  that  terrible  ray  of  light  into  the  unlit  gulf 
of  the  heart  when  He  tells  us  "  what  proceeds  out  of 
the  heart  of  man,"  ^  had  yet  the  ear  which  was  the  first 
to  hear  the  trembling  of  the  one  chord  that  yet  kept 
healthful  time  and  tune  in  the  harlot's  passionate  heart. 
He  believed  that  man  was  recoverable;  lost,  but  cap- 
able of  being  found.  After  all,  in  this  sense  there  is 
something  worthy  of  love  in  man.  "God  so  loved" 
(not  so  hated)  "  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son."  Shall  we  say  that  we  are  to  hate  the 
world  which  He  loved  ? 

And  now  we  come  to  that  world  which  God  never 
loved,  never  will  love,  never  will  reconcile  to  Himself, — 
which  we  are  not  to  love. 

This  is  most  important  to  see ;  for  there  is  always 
a  danger  in  setting  out  with  a  stricter  standard  than 
Christ's,  a  narrower  road  than  the  narrow  one  which 
leads  to  heaven.  Experience  proves  that  they  who 
begin  with  standards  of  duty  which  are  impossibly 
high  end  with  standards  of  duty  which  are  sometimes 
sadly  low.  Such  men  have  tried  the  impracticable,  and 
failed  ;  the  practicable  seems  to  be  too  hard  for  them 
ever  afterwards.  They  who  begin  by  anathematising 
the  world  in  things  innocent,  indifferent,  or  even  laud- 
able, not  rarely  end  by  a  reaction  of  thought  which 
believes  that  the  world  is  nothing  and  nowhere. 

But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  world  in  St.  John's 
sense — an  evil  world  brought  into  existence  by  the  abuse 

'  Mark  vii.  21. 

10 


146    •  THE    WORLD    IVE  MUST  NOT  LOVE. 

of  our  free-will;  filled  by  the  and-trinity,  by  "the  lust 
of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life." 
Let  us  not  confuse  "  the  world"  with  the  earth,  with 
the  whole  race  of  man,  with  general  society,  with  any 
particular  set,  however  much  some  sets  are  to  be 
avoided.  Look  at  the  thing  fairly.  Two  people,  we 
will  say,  go  to  London,  to  live  there.  One,  from  circum- 
stances of  life  and  position,  naturally  falls  into  the 
highest  social  circle.  Another  has  introductions  to  a 
smaller  set,  with  an  apparently  more  serious  connection. 
Follow  the  first  some  evening.  He  drives  to  a  great 
gathering.  The  room  which  he  enters  is  ablaze  with 
light ;  jewelled  orders  sparkle  upon  men's  coats,  and 
fair  women  move  in  exquisite  dresses.  We  look  at 
the  scene  and  we  say — "  what  worldly  society  has  the 
man  fallen  into  ! "  Perhaps  so,  in  a  sense.  But  about 
the  same  time  the  other  walks  to  a  little  room  with 
humbler  adjuncts,  where  a  grave  and  apparently  serious 
circle  meet  together.  We  are  able  to  look  in  there  also, 
and  we  exclaim — "  this  is  serious  society,  unworldly 
society."  Perhaps  so  again.  Yet  let  us  read  the  letters 
of  Mary  Godolphin.  She  bore  a  life  unspotted  by  the 
wo  Id  in  the  dissolute  court  of  Charles  II.,  because  the 
love  of  the  Father  was  in  her.  In  small  serious  circles 
are  there  no  hidden  lusts  which  blaze  up  in  scandals  ? 
Is  there  no  vanity,  no  pride,  no  hatred  ?  In  the  world 
of  Charles  II. 's  court  Mary  Godolphin  lived  out  of  the 
world  which  God  hated  ;  in  the  religious  world  not  a 
few,  certainly,  live  in  the  world  which  is  not  God's.  For 
once  more,  the  world  is  not  so  much  a  place — though 
at  times  its  power  seems  to  have  been  drawn  into  one 
intense  focus,  as  in  the  empire  of  which  Rome  was 
the  centre,  and  which  may  have  been  in  the  Apostle's 
thought   in    the  following  verse.      In  the   truest  and 


ii.  15,  i6.]     THE    WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE.  147 

deepest  sense  the  world  consists  of  our  own  spiritual 
surrounding  ;  it  is  the  place  which  we  make  for  our 
own  souls.  No  walls  that  ever  were  reared  can  shut 
out  the  world  from  us  ;  the  "  Nun  of  Kenmare  "  found 
that  it  followed  her  into  the  seemingly  spiritual  retreat 
of  a  severe  Order.  The  world  in  its  essence  is  subtler 
and  thinner  than  the  most  infinitesimal  of  the  bacterian 
germs  in  the  air.  They  can  be  strained  off  by  the 
exquisite  apparatus  of  a  man  of  science.  At  a  certain 
height  they  cease  to  exist.  But  the  world  may  be  where- 
ever  we  are ;  we  carry  it  with  us  wherever  we  go,  it 
lasts  while  our  lives  last.  No  consecration  can  utterly 
banish  it  even  from  within  the  church's  walls ;  it  dares 
to  be  round  us  while  we  kneel,  and  follows  us  into  the 
presence  of  God. 

(2)  Why  does  God  hate  this  "  world  " — the  world  in 
this  sense  ?  St.  John  tells  us.  "  If  any  man  love  the 
world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him."  Deep  in 
every  heart  must  be  one  or  other  of  two  loves.  There 
is  no  room  for  two  master-passions.  There  is  an 
expulsive  power  in  all  true  affection.  What  tenderness 
and  pathos,  how  much  of  expostulation,  more  potent 
because  reserved — "  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in 
him  "  !  He  has  told  all  his  "  httle  ones  "  that  he  has 
written  to  them  because  they  "  know  the  Father." 
St.  John  does  not  use  sacred  names  at  random.  Even 
Voltaire  felt  that  there  was  something  almost  awful  in 
hearing  Newton  pronounce  the  name  of  God.  Such  in 
an  incomparably  higher  degree  is  the  spirit  of  St.  John, 
In  this  section  he  writes  of  "  the  love  of  the  Father ^^  * 
and  of  the  "will  of  God."^  The  first  title  has  more 
sweetness  than  majesty  ;  the  second  more  majesty  than 

•  I  Jthn  ii.  15.  16.  *  Ibid.  vcr.  17. 


148  THE   WORLD    WE  MUST  NOT  LOVE. 

sweetness.*  He  would  throw  into  his  plea  some  of 
the  winningness  of  one  who  uses  this  as  a  resistless 
argument  with  a  tempted  but  loving  child — an  argument 
often  successful  when  every  other  fails.  "  If  you  do 
this,  your  Father  will  not  love  you  ;  you  will  not  be 
His  child."  We  have  but  to  read  this  with  the  hearts 
of  God's  dear  children.  Then  we  shall  find  that  if  the 
"love  not"  of  this  verse  contains  "words  of  extirpa- 
tion ; "  ^  it  ends  with  others  which  are  intended  to  draw 
us  with  cords  of  a  man,  and  with  bands  of  love. 

'  No  portion  of  Prof.  Westcott's  Commentary   is   more  thorough 
or  more  exquisite  than  his  exposition  here.     {Epistles  of  St.  John,  66.) 
•  Extirpantia  verbal    St,  August,  (in  loc). 


DISCOURSE    VII. 

US£  AND  ABUSE  OF  THE  SENSE  OF  THE   VANITY 
OF  THE    WORLD. 

"The  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof:  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever." — I  John  ii.  17. 

THE  connection  of  the  passage  in  which  these  words 
occur  is  not  difficult  to  trace,  for  those  who  are 
used  to  follow  those  "roots  below  the  stream,"  those 
real  rather  than  verbal  links  latent  in  the  substance  of 
St.  John's  thoughts.  He  addresses  those  whom  he  has 
in  view  with  a  paternal  authority,  as  his  *'  sons  "  in  the 
faith — with  an  endearing  variation  as  "  little  children." 
He  reminds  them  of  the  wisdom  and  strength  involved 
in  their  Christian  life.  Theirs  is  the  sweetest  flower 
of  knowledge — "  to  know  the  Father."  Theirs  is  the 
grandest  crown  of  victory — "  to  overcome  the  wicked 
one."  But  there  remains  an  enemy  in  one  sense  more 
dangerous  than  the  evil  one — the  world.  By  the  world 
in  this  place  we  are  to  understand  that  element  in  the 
material  and  human  sphere,  in  the  region  of  mingled 
good  and  evil,  which  is  external  to  God,  to  the  influence 
of  His  Spiiit,  to  the  boundaries  of  His  Church — nay, 
which  frequently  passes  over  those  boundaries.  In 
this  sense  it  is,  so  to  speak,  a  fictitious  world,  a  world 
of  wills  separated  from  God  because  dominated  by  self; 
a  shadowy  caricature  of  creation  ;  an  anti-kosmos,  which 
the  Author  of  the  kosmos  has  not  made.     What  has 


ISO  USE  AND  ABUSE  OF  THE  SENSE   OF 

been  well  called  "  the  great  love  not "  rings  out — "  love 
not  the  world."  For  this  admonition  two  reasons  of 
ever  enduring  validity  are  given  by  St.  John.  (l)  The 
application  of  the  law  of  human  nature,  that  two  master- 
passions  cannot  co-exist  in  one  man.  "  If  any  man  love 
the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him."  (2) 
The  unsatisfactory  nature  of  the  world,  its  incurable 
transitoriness,  its  "  visible  tendency  to  non-existence." 
"  The  world  passeth  away,   and  the  lust  thereof." 

It  will  be  well  to  consider  how  far  this  thought  of 
the  transitoriness  of  the  world,  of  its  drifting  by  in 
ceaseless  change,  is  in  itself  salutary  and  Christian, 
how  far  it  needs  to  be  supplemented  and  elevated  by 
that  which  follows  and  closes  the  verse.^ 

I. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  then,  that  up  to  a  certain 
point  this  conviction  is  a  necessary  element  of  Chris- 
tian thought,  feeling,  and  character ;  that  it  is  at  least 
among  the  preliminaries  of  a  saving  reception  of 
Christ. 

There  is  in  the  great  majority  of  the  world  a  sur- 
prising and  almost  incredible  levity.  There  is  a  dis- 
position to  believe  in  the  permanency  of  that  which  we 
have  known  to  continue  long,  and  which  has  become 
habitual.     There  is  a  tale  of  a  man  who  was  resolved 

'  vapdyerat.  It  has  been  said  that  this  is  not  the  real  point ;  that 
what  St.  John  here  describes  is  not  the  general  attribute  of  the  world 
as  transitory,  but  its  condition  at  the  moment  when  the  Epistle  was 
written,  in  presence  of  the  manifestation  of  "  the  kingdom  of  God, 
which  was  daily  shining  forth."  But  surely  the  world  can  scarcely 
be  so  completely  identified  with  the  temporary  framework  of  the 
Roman  Empire  ;  and  the  universality  of  the  antithesis  (6  U  iroiwv  k.t.X.) 
and  its  intensely  individual  form,  lead  us  to  take  K6(Tfios  in  that 
universal  and  inclusive  signification  which  alone  is  of  abiding  intorest 
to  every  ajc. 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  ifl 

to  keep  from  his  children  the  knowledge  of  death.  He 
was  the  Governor  of  a  colony,  and  had  lost  in  succession 
his  wife  and  many  children.  Two  only,  mere  infants, 
were  left.  He  withdrew  "^o  a  beautiful  and  secluded 
island,  and  tried  to  barricade  his  daughters  from  the 
fatal  knowledge  which,  when  once  acquired,  darkens 
the  spirit  with  anticipation.  In  the  ocean-island  death 
was  to  be  a  forbidden  word.  If  met  with  in  the  pages 
of  a  book,  and  questions  were  asked,  no  answer  was 
to  be  given.  If  some  one  expired,  the  body  was  to  be 
removed,  and  the  children  were  to  be  told  that  the 
departed  had  gone  to  another  country.  It  does  not 
need  much  imagination  to  feel  sure  that  the  secret  could 
not  be  kept ;  that  some  fish  on  the  coral  reef,  or  some 
bright  bird  in  the  tropic  forest,  gave  the  little  ones  the 
hint  of  a  something  that  touched  the  splendour  of  the 
sunset  with  a  strange  presentiment ;  that  some  hour 
came  when,  as  to  the  rest  of  us,  so  to  them,  the  mute 
presence  would  insist  upon  being  made  known.  Ours 
is  a  stranger  mode  of  dealing  with  ourselves  than  was 
the  father's  way  of  dealing  with  his  children.  We 
tacitly  resolve  to  play  a  game  of  make-believe  with 
ourselves,  to  forget  that  which  cannot  be  forgotten,  to 
remove  to  an  incalculable  distance  that  which  is  inex- 
orably near.  And  the  fear  of  death  with  us  does  not 
come  from  the  nerves,  but  from  the  will.  Death  ushers 
us  into  the  presence  of  God.  Those  of  whom  we  speak 
hate  and  fear  death  because  they  fear  God,  and  hate 
His  presence.  Now  it  is  necessary  for  such  persons 
as  these  to  be  awakened  from  their  illusion.  That 
which  is  supremely  important  for  them  is  to  realise 
that  "  the  world  "  is  indeed  "  drifting  by ; "  that  there 
is  an  emptiness  in  all  that  is  created,  a  vanity  in  all 
that  is  not  eternal ;  that  time  is  short,  eternity  long. 


152  USE  AND  ABUSE   OF    THE  SENSE   OF 

They  must  be  brought  to  see  that  with  the  world,  the 
"lust  thereof"  (the  concupiscence,  the  lust  of  it,  which 
has  the  world  for  its  object,  which  belongs  to  it,  and 
which  the  world  stimulates)  passes  by  also.  The  world, 
which  is  object  of  the  desire,  is  a  phantom  and  a 
shadow ;  the  desire  itself  must  be  therefore  the  phantom 
of  a  phantom  and  the  shadow  of  a  shadow. 

This  conviction  has  a  thousand  times  over  led  human 
souls  to  the  one  true  abiding  centre  of  eternal  reahty. 
It  has  come  in  a  thousand  ways.  It  has  been  said 
that  one  heard  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  read,  with 
those  words  eight  times  repeated  over  the  close  of  each 
record  of  longevity,  like  the  strokes  of  a  funeral  bell, 
"  and  he  died ;  "  and  that  the  impression  never  left  him, 
until  he  planted  his  foot  upon  the  rock  over  the  tide 
of  the  changing  years.  Sometimes  this  conviction  is 
produced  by  the  death  of  friends — sometimes  by  the 
slow  discipline  of  life — sometimes  no  doubt  it  may  be 
begun,  sometimes  deepened,  by  the  preacher's  voice  upon 
the  watch-night,  by  the  effective  ritualism  of  the  tolling 
bell,  of  the  silent  prayer,  of  the  well-selected  hymn. 
And  it  is  right  that  the  world's  dancing  in,  or  drinking 
in,  the  New  Year,  should  be  a  hint  to  Christians 
to  pray  it  in.  This  is  one  of  the  happy  plagiarisms 
which  the  Church  has  made  from  the  world.  The 
heart  feels  as  it  never  did  before  the  truth  of  St.  John's 
sad,  calm,  oracular  survey  of  existence.  "  The  world 
passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof." 

II. 

But  we  have  not  sounded  the  depth  of  the  truth— 
certainly  we  have  not  exhausted  St.  John's  meaning 
— until  we  have  asked  something  more.  Is  this  con- 
viction alone   always  a   herald   of  salvation  ?      Is   it 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  157. 

always,  taken  by  itself,  even  salutary  ?  Can  it  never 
be  exaggerated,  and  become  the  parent  of  evils  almost 
greater  than  those  which  it  supersedes  ? 

We  are  led  by  careful  study  of  the  Bible  to  conclude 
that  this  sentiment  of  the  flux  of  things  is  capable  of 
exaggeration.  For  there  is  one  important  principle 
which  arises  from  a  comparison  of  the  Old  Testament 
with  the  New  in  this  matter. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  Old  Testament  has  in- 
definitely more  which  corresponds  to  the  first  proposi- 
tion of  the  text,  without  the  qualification  which  follows 
it,  than  we  can  find  in  the  New. 

The  patriarch  Job's  experience  echoes  in  our  ears 
"Man  that  is  born  of  a  woman  hath  but  a  short  time  to 
live,  and  is  full  of  misery.  He  cometh  up,  and  is  cut 
down,  like  a  flower ;  he  fleeth  as  it  were  a  shadow,  and 
never  continueth  in  one  stay."  *  The  Funeral  Psalms 
make  their  melancholy  chant.  "  Behold,  Thou  hast  made 
my  days  as  it  were  a  span  long.  .  .  .  Verily  every  man 
living  is  altogether  vanity.  For  man  walketh  in  a  vain 
shadow,  and  disquieteth  himself  in  vain.  .  .  .  O  spare  me 
a  little  that  I  may  smile  again."  ^  Or  we  read  the  words  of 
Moses,  the  man  of  God,  in  that  ancient  psalm  of  his,  that 
hymn  of  time  and  of  eternity.  All  that  human  speech 
can  say  is  summed  up  in  four  words,  the  truest,  the 
deepest,  the  saddest  and  the  most  expressive,  that  ever 
fell  from  any  mortal  pen.  "  We  bring  our  years  to  an  end, 
as  a  sigh."  ^     Each  life  is  a  sigh  between  two  eternities  ! 

Our  point  is,  that  in  the  New  Testament  there  is 
greatly  less  of  this  element — greatly  less  of  this  pathetic 
moralising  upon  the  vanity  and  fragility  of  human  life, 

'  Job  xiv.  I,  2.     Cf.  X.  20-22. 

*  Such  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  n2v3X  (Ps.  xxxix.  14), 

•  Ps.  xc.  9. 


154  USE  AND  ABUSE  OF  THE  SENSE  OF 

ot  which  we  have  only  cited  a  few  examples — and  that 
what  there  is  lies  in  a  different  atmosphere,  with 
sunnier  and  more  cheerful  surroundings.  Indeed,  in 
the  whole  compass  of  the  New  Testament  there  is 
perhaps  but  one  passage  which  is  set  quite  in  the  same 
key  with  our  familiar  declamations  upon  the  uncertainty 
and  shortness  of  human  life — where  St.  James  desires 
Christians  ever  to  remember  in  all  their  projects  to 
make  deduction  for  the  will  of  God,  "not  knowing 
what  shall  be  on  the  morrow."  ^  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  voice,  which  wails  for  a  second  about  the 
changefulness  and  misery,  is  lost  in  the  triumphant 
music  by  which  it  is  encompassed.  If  earthly  goods 
are  depreciated,  it  is  not  merely  because  "  the  load  of 
them  troubles,  the  love  of  them  taints,  the  loss  of  them 
tortures ; "  ^  it  is  because  better  things  are  ready. 
There  is  no  lamentation  over  the  change,  no  clinging 
to  the  dead  past.  The  tone  is  rather  one  of  joyful 
invitation.  "  Your  raft  is  going  to  pieces  in  the 
troubled  sea  of  time  ;  step  into  a  gallant  ship.  Tha 
volcanic  isle  on  which  you  stand  is  undermined  by 
silent  fires  ;  we  can  promise  to  bring  you  with  us  to  a 
shore  of  safety  where  you  shall  be  compassed  about 
with  songs  of  deliverance." 

It  is  no  doubt  true  to  urge  that  this  style  of  thought 
and  language  is  partly  to  be  ascribed  to  a  desire  that 
the  attention  of  Christians  should  be  fixed  on  the  return 
of  their  Lord,  rather  than  upon  their  own  death.     But, 


'  James  iv.  13-17.  The  passage  l  Pet.  i.  25  is  taken  from  the  magni- 
ficent prophecy  in  which  the  fragility  of  all  flesh,  transitory  as  the 
falling  away  of  the  flowers  of  grass  into  impalpable  dust,  is  contrasted 
with  the  eternity  of  the  word  of  God.     Isa.  xl.  6,  7,  LXX. 

*  "  Possessa  onerant,  amata  inquinant,  amissa  cruciant" — St. 
Bernard, 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  155 

if  we  believe  Scripture  to  have  been  written  under 
Divine  guidance,  the  history  of  religion  may  supply  us 
v/ith  good  grounds  for  the  absence  of  all  exaggeration 
from  its  pages  in  speaking  of  the  misery  of  life  and  the 
transitoriness  of  the  world. 

The  largest  religious  experiment  in  the  world,  the 
history  of  a  religion  which  at  one  time  numerically  ex- 
ceeded Christendom,  is  a  gigantic  proof  that  it  is  not 
safe  to  allow  unlimited  licence  to  melancholy  specula- 
tion. The  true  symbol  for  humanity  is  not  a  skull 
and  an  hour  glass. 

Some  two  thousand  five  hundred  3'ears  ago,  towards 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ,  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains  of  Nepaul,  in  the  capital  of  a 
kingdom  of  Central  India,  an  infant  was  born  whom 
the  world  will  never  forget.  All  gifts  seemed  to  be 
showered  on  this  child.  He  was  the  son  of  a  powerful 
king  and  heir  to  his  throne.  The  young  Siddhartha 
was  of  rare  distinction,  brave  and  beautiful,  a  thinker 
and  a  hero,  married  to  an  amiable  and  fascinating 
princess.  But  neither  a  great  position  nor  domestic 
happiness  could  clear  away  the  cloud  of  melancholy 
which  hung  over  Siddhartha,  even  under  that  lovely 
sky.  His  deep  and  meditative  soul  dwelt  night  and 
day  upon  the  mystery  of  existence.  He  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  life  of  the  creature  is  incurably  evil 
from  three  causes — the  very  fact  of  existence,  desire, 
and  ignorance.  The  things  revealed  by  sense  are  evil. 
None  has  that  continuance  and  fixity  which  are  the 
marks  of  Law,  and  the  attainment  of  which  is  the 
condition  of  happiness.  At  last  his  resolution  to  leave 
all  his  splendour  and  become  an  ascetic  was  irrevocably 
fixed.  One  splendid  morning  the  prince  drove  to  a 
glorious  garden.     On  his  road  he  met  a  repulsive  old 


156  USE  AND  ABUSE  OF  THE  SENSE  OF 

man,  wrinkled,  toothless,  bent.  Another  day,  a  wretched 
being  wasted  with  fever  crossed  his  path.  Yet  a  third 
excursion — and  a  funeral  passes  along  the  road  with  a 
corpse  on  an  open  bier,  and  friends  wailing  as  they  go. 
His  favourite  attendant  is  obliged  in  each  case  to  confess 
that  these  evils  are  not  exceptional — that  old  age,  sick- 
ness, and  death,  are  the  fatal  conditions  of  conscious 
existence  for  all  the  sons  of  men.  Then  the  Prince 
Royal  takes  his  first  step  towards  becoming  the  deliverer 
of  humanity.  He  cries — "  woe,  woe  to  the  youth  which 
old  age  must  destroy,  to  the  health  which  sickness 
must  undermine,  to  the  life  which  has  so  few  days 
and  is  so  full  of  evil."  Hasty  readers  are  apt  to  judge 
that  the  Prince  was  on  the  same  track  with  the  Patriarch 
of  Idumea,  and  with  Moses  the  man  of  God  in  the 
desert — nay,  with  St.  John,  when  he  writes  from 
Ephesus  that  "  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust 
thereof." 

It  may  be  well  to  reconsider  this ;  to  see  what  con- 
tradictory principle  lies  under  utterances  which  have 
so  much  superficial   resemblance. 

Siddhartha  became  known  as  the  Bouddha,  the 
august  founder  of  a  great  and  ancient  religion.  Tl.at 
religion  has  of  later  years  been  favourably  compared 
with  Christianity — yet  what  are  its  necessary  results, 
as  drawn  out  for  us  by  those  who  have  studied  it  most 
deeply  ?  Scepticism,  fanatic  hatred  of  life,  incurable 
sadness  in  a  world  fearfully  misunderstood ;  rejection 
of  the  personality  of  man,  of  God,  of  the  reality  of 
Nature.  Strange  enigma!  The  Bouddha  sought  to 
win  annihilation  by  good  works;  everlasting  non- 
being  by  a  life  of  purity,  of  alms,  of  renunciation,  of 
austerity.  The  prize  of  his  high  calling  was  not  ever- 
lasting  life,   but   everlasting   death ;  for  what   else   is 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  157 

impersonality,  unconsciousness,  absorption  into  the 
universe,  but  the  negation  of  human  existence  ?  The 
acceptance  of  the  principles  of  Bouddhism  is  simply  a 
sentence  of  death  intellectually,  morally,  spirituall}', 
almost  physically,  passed  upon  the  race  which  submits 
to  the  melancholy  bondage  of  its  creed  of  desolation. 
It  is  the  opium  drunkenness  of  the  spiritual  world 
without  the  dreams  that  are  its  temporary  consolation. 
It  is  enervating  without  being  soft,  and  contemplative 
without  being  profound.  It  is  a  religion  which  is 
spiritual  without  recognising  the  soul,  virtuous  without 
the  conception  of  duty,  moral  without  the  admission  of 
liberty,  charitable  without  love.  It  surveys  a  world 
without  nature,  and  a  universe  without  God.*  The 
human  soul  under  its  influence  is  not  so  much  drunken 
as  asphyxiated  by  a  monotonous  unbalanced  perpetual 
repetition  of  one  half  of  the  truth — "  the  world  passeth 
away,  and  the  lust  thereof." 

For  let  us  carefully  note  that  St.  John  adds  a  qualifi- 
cation which  preserves  the  balance  of  truth.  Over 
against  the  dreary  contemplation  of  the  perpetual  flux 
of  things,  he  sets  a  constant  course  of  doing — over 
against  the  world,  God  in  His  deepest,  truest  personality, 
^^the  will  of  God^^ — over  against  the  fact  of  our  having 
a  short  time  to  live,  and  being  full  of  misery,  an  ever- 
lasting y?A7/y,  ^^he  abideth  for  ever" — (so  well  brought 
out  by  the  old  gloss  which  slipped  into  the  Latin  text, 
"even  as  God  abideth  for  ever").  As  the  Lord  had 
taught  before,  so  the  disciple  now  teaches,  of  the  rock- 
like solidity,  of  the  permanent  abiding,  under  and  over 
him  who  "  doeth."     Of  the  devotee  who  became  in  his 

'  The  view  here  taken  of  Bouddhism  follows  that  of  M.  J.  Barthe- 
leiny  St.  Hilaire.  Le  Botiddha  et  sa  Religion.  Premiere  partie,  chap 
v.,  pp.  141-182. 


158  USE  AND  ABUSE   OF  THE  SENSE   OF 

turn  the  Bouddha,  (^akhya-Mouni  could  not  have  said 
one  word  of  the  close  of  our  text.  "//^" — but  human 
personality  is  lost  in  the  triumph  of  knowledge.  "  Doclh 
the  will  of  God" — but  God  is  ignored,  if  not  denied.^ 
*^  Abideth  for  ever" — but  that  is  precisely  the  object  of 
his  aversion,  the  terror  from  which  he  wishes  to  be 
emancipated  at  any  price,  by  any  self-denial. 

It  may  be  supposed  that  this  strain  of  thought  is  of 
little  practical  importance.  It  may  be  of  use,  indeed, 
in  other  lands  to  the  missionary  who  is  brought  into 
contact  with  forms  of  Bouddhism  in  China,  India,  or 
Ceylon,  but  not  to  us  in  these  countries.  In  truth  it 
is  not  so.  It  is  about  half  a  century  ago  since  a  great 
English  theologian  warned  his  University  that  the 
central  principle  of  Bouddhism  was  being  spread  far 
and  wide  in  Europe  from  Berlin.  This  propaganda  is 
not  confined  to  philosophy.  It  is  at  work  in  literature 
generally,  in  poetry,  in  novels,  above  all  in  those  col- 
lections of"  Pensees"  which  have  become  so  extensively 
popular.  The  unbelief  of  the  last  century  advanced 
with  flashing  epigrams  and  defiant  songs.  With 
Byron  it  softened  at  times  into  a  melancholy  which 
was  perhaps  partly  affected.  But  with  Amiel,  and 
others  of  our  own  day,  unbelief  assumes  a  sweet  and 
dirge-like  tone.  The  satanic  mirth  of  the  past  unbelief 
is  exchanged  for  a  satanic  melancholy  in  the  present. 
Many  cunents  of  thought  run  into  our  hearts,  and  all 
are  tinged  with  a  darkness  before  unknown  from  new 
substances  in  the  soil  which  colours  the  waters.     There 

'  "  These  populations  neither  deny  nor  affirm  God.  They  simply 
ignore  Him.  To  assert  that  they  are  atheists  would  be  very  much 
the  same  thing  as  to  assert  that  they  are  anti-Caitesians.  As  they 
are  neither  for  nor  against  Descartes,  so  they  are  neither  for  nor 
against  God.  They  arc  just  children.  A  child  is  neither  atheist  noi 
deist     He  is  nothing." — Voltaire,  Diet.  Phil.,  Art.  Alhe'isme, 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  159 

is  little  fear  of  our  not  hearing  enough,  great  fear  of 
our  hearing  too  much,  of  the  proposition — "  the  world 
passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof." 

All  this  may  possibly  serve  as  some  explanation  for 
the  fact  that  the  Christian  Church,  as  such,  has  no  fast 
for  the  last  day  of  the  year,  no  festival  for  New  Year's 
Day  except  one  quite  unconnected  with  the  lessons 
which  may  be  drawn  from  the  flight  of  time.  The 
death  of  the  old  year,  the  birth  of  the  new  year,  have 
touching  associations  for  us.  But  the  Church  conse- 
crates no  death  but  that  of  Jesus  and  His  martyrs,  no 
nativity  but  that  of  her  Lord,  and  of  one  whose  birth 
was  directly  connected  with  His  own — John  the  Baptist.^ 
A  cause  of  this  has  been  found  in  the  fact  that  the  day 
bad  become  so  deeply  contaminated  by  the  abominations 
of  the  heathen  Saturnalia  that  it  was  impossible  in  the 
early  Church  to  continue  any  very  marked  observation 
of  it.  This  may  well  be  so  ;  but  it  is  worth  considering 
whether  there  is  not  another  and  deeper  reason.  Nothing 
that  has  now  been  said  can  be  supposed  to  militate  against 
the  observance  of  this  time  by  Christians  in  private, 
with  solemn  penitence  for  the  transgressions  of  the 
past  year,  and  earnest  prayer  for  that  upon  which  we 
enter — nothing  against  the  edification  of  particular 
congregations  by  such  services  as  those  most  striking 

•  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  collects  in  the  English  Prayer-Book, 
and  indeed  in  its  public  formularies  generally  (outside  the  Funeral 
Service,  and  that  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick),  there  are  but  two 
places  in  which  the  note  of  the  "world  passeth  away"  is  very 
prominently  struck,  viz.,  the  Collect  for  the  Fourth  Sunday  after 
Easter,  and  one  portion  of  the  prayer  for  "  The  Church  Militant." 
One  of  the  most  wholesome  and  beautiful  expressions  of  the  salutary 
convictions  arising  from  Christian  perception  of  this  melancholy 
truth  is  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Johnson's  "  Praj'er  for  the  Last  Day  in 
the  Year,"  as  given  in  Mr.  Stobart's  Daily  Services  for  Christian 
Households,  pp.  99,  ICX). 


i6o  USE  AND  ABUSE   OF  THE  SENSE   OF 

ones  which  are  held  in  so  many  places.  But  some 
explanation  is  supplied  why  the  "  Watch-night "  is 
not  recognised  in  the  calendar  of  the  Church. 

Let  us  take  our  verse  together  as  a  whole  and  we 
have  something  better  than  moralising  over  the  flight 
of  time  and  the  transitoriness  of  the  world ;  s  imo 
thing  better  than  vulgarising  "  vanity  of  vanities  "  by 
vapid  iteration. 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  a  life  in  which  death  and 
evanescence  have  nothing  that  enforces  their  recog- 
nition. Now  the  removal  of  one  dear  to  us,  now  a 
glance  at  the  obituary  with  the  name  of  some  one  of 
almost  the  same  age  as  ourselves,  brings  a  sudden  shadow 
over  the  sunniest  field.  Yet  surely  it  is  not  wholesome 
to  encourage  the  perpetual  presence  of  the  cloud.  We 
might  impose  upon  ourselves  the  penance  of  being  shut 
up  all  a  winter's  night  with  a  corpse,  go  half  crazy 
with  terror  of  that  unearthly  presence,  and  yet  be  no 
more  spiritual  after  all.  We  must  learn  to  look  at 
death  in  a  different  way,  with  new  eyes.  We  all  know 
how  different  dead  faces  are.  Some  speak  to  us  merely 
of  material  ugliness,  of  the  sweep  of  "  decay's  effacing 
fingers."  In  others  a  new  idea  seems  to  light  up  the 
face ;  there  is  the  touch  of  a  superhuman  irradiation,  of 
a  beauty  from  a  hidden  life.  We  feel  that  we  look  on 
one  who  has  seen  Christ,  and  say — "  we  shall  be  like 
Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."  These  two 
kinds  of  faces  answer  to  the  two  different  views  of 
life. 

Not  the  transitory,  but  the  permanent ;  not  the  fleet- 
ing, but  the  abiding ;  not  death  but  life,  is  the  con- 
clusion of  the  whole  matter.  The  Christian  life  is 
not  an  initial  spasm  followed  by  a  chronic  dyspepsia. 
What   does    St.    John    give   us   as    the   picture   of   it 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  161 

exemplified  in  a  believer?  Daily,  perpetual,  constant 
doing  the  will  of  God.  This  is  the  end  far  beyond — 
.^ornew  hat  inconsistent  with — obstinately  morbid  medita- 
tion and  surrounding  ourselves  with  multiplied  images 
of  mortality.  Lying  in  a  coffin  half  the  night  might 
not  lead  to  that  end ;  nay,  it  might  be  a  hindrance 
th(  reto.  Beyond  the  grave,  outside  the  coffin,  is  the 
object  at  which  we  are  to  look.  "  The  current  of 
things  temporal,"  cries  Augustine,  "sweeps  along. 
But  like  a  tree  over  that  stream  has  risen  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  He  willed  to  plant  Himself  as  it  were 
over  the  river.  Are  you  whirled  along  by  the  current  ? 
Lay  hold  of  the  wood.  Does  the  love  of  the  world  roll 
you  onward  in  its  course  ?  Lay  hold  upon  Christ. 
For  you  He  became  temporal  that  you  might  become 
eternal.  For  He  was  so  made  temporal  as  to  remain 
eternal.  Join  thy  heart  to  the  eternity  of  God,  and 
thou  shalt  be  eternal  with  Him." 

Those  who  have  heard  the  Miserere  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel  describe  the  desolation  which  settles  upon  the 
soul  which  surrenders  itself  to  the  impression  of  the 
ritual.  As  the  psalm  proceeds,  at  the  end  of  each 
rhythmical  pulsation  of  thought,  each  beat  of  the  alter- 
nate wings  of  the  parallelism,  a  light  upon  the  altar  is 
extinguished.  As  the  wail  grows  sadder  the  darkness 
grows  deeper.  When  all  the  lights  are  out  and  the 
last  echo  of  the  strain  dies  away,  there  would  be  some- 
thing suitable  for  the  penitent's  mood  in  the  words — 
**  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof."  Upon 
the  altar  of  the  Christian  heart  there  are  tapers  at  first 
unlighted,  and  before  it  a  priest  in  black  vestments.  But 
one  by  one  the  vestments  are  exchanged  for  others  which 
are  white ;  one  after  another  the  lamps  are  lighted  slowly 
and  without  noise,  until  gradually,  we  know  not  how, 


1 62  USE  AND  ABUSE   OF  THE  SENSE   OF 

the  whole  place  is  full  of  light.  And  ever  sweeter  and 
clearer,  calm  and  happy,  with  a  triumph  which  is  at  first 
repressed  and  reverential,  but  which  increases  as  the 
light  becomes  diffused,  the  words  are  heard  strong  and 
quiet — a  plain-song  now  that  will  swell  into  an  anthem 
presently — "he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth 
for  ever," 

NOTES. 
Ch.  ii.  12-17. 

Ver.  12,  13,  14.  These  verses  cannot  properly  be  divided 
so  as  to  embrace  three  departments  of  spiritual,  answering  to 
three  departments  of  natural,  life.  All  believers  are  addressed 
authoritatively  as  "  children  "  in  the  faith,  tenderly  as  "  little 
children;  "  then  subdivided  into  two  classes  only,  "fathers," 
and  "  young  men." 

Ver.  16.  Hardy's  comment  is  quaint,  and  interesting. 
"  These  three  are  *  all  that  is  in  the  world ; '  they  are  the 
world's  cursed  trinity  ;  according  to  that  of  the  poet, 

Ambitiosus  honos,  opes,  et  foeda  voluptas; 
Hsec  tria  pro  trine  numine  mundus  habet, 

which  wicked  men  adore  and  worship  as  deities ;  in  which 
regard  Lapide  opposeth  them  to  the  three  persons  in  the 
blessed  Trinity :  the  lust  of  the  eyes  to  the  Father,  who  is 
liberal  in  communicating  His  essence  to  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit ;  the  lust  of  the  flesh  to  the  Son,  whose  generation  is 
spiritual  and  eternal ;  the  pride  of  life  to  the  Holy  Ghost, 
who  is  the  Spirit  of  humility.  That  golden  calf,  which,  being 
made,  was  set  up  and  worshipped  by  the  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness,  is  not  unfitly  made  use  of  to  represent  these :  the 
calf,  which  is  a  wanton  creature,  an  emblem  of  the  lust  of 
flesh;  the  gold  of  the  calf,  referring  to  the  lust  of  the  eyes; 
and  the  exalting  it,  to  the  pride  of  life.  Oh,  how  do  the  most 
of  men  fall  down  before  this  golden  calf  which  the  world 
erecteth." 

In  tracing  the  various  senses  of  "  the  world  "  we  have  not 
dwelt  prominently  upon  the  conception  of  the  world  as  embodied 


ii.  17.]  THE    VANITY  OF  THE    WORLD.  163 

in  the  Roman  Empire,  and  in  the  city  of  Rome  as  its  seat — an 
empire  standing  over  against  the  Church  as  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  The  aKa(pv[a  tov  iSiov  may  be  projected  outwardly,  and 
set  in  a  material  framework  in  the  gorgeous  description  of  the 
wealth  and  luxury  of  Rome  in  Apoc.  xviii.  11 -14.  M.  Renan 
finds  in  the  Apocalypse  the  cry  of  horror  of  a  witness  who  has 
been  at  Rome,  seen  the  martyrdom  of  brethren,  and  been 
himself  near  death.  (Apoc.  i.  9,  vi.  9,  xiii.  10,  xx.  4 ;  cf. 
L'Antechrist,  pp.  197,  199.  Surely  Apoc  xviii.  20  adds  a 
strong  testimony  to  the  martyrdom  of  Peter  and  Paul  at 
Rome.)  So  early  a  witness  as  TertuUian  gives  the  story  of 
St.  John's  having  been  plunged  into  the  boiling  oil  without 
injury  to  him  before  his  exile  at  Patmos.  (^De  Prcescr.  Hcer. , 
36).  The  Apocryphal  'Acta  lohannis '  (known  to  Eusebius 
and  to  St.  Augustine),  relates  at  length  an  interview  at  Rome 
between  Domitian  and  St.  John — not  without  interest,  in  spite 
of  some  miraculous  embellishment.  Acta.  A^ost.  AJ>oc. 
Tischendorf,  266-271. 


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DISCOURSE  VIII. 

KNOWING  ALL   THINGS, 

"But  ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One,  and  ye  know  all 
things." — I  John  ii.  20. 

THERE  is  little  of  the  form  of  logical  argument 
to  which  Western  readers  are  habituated  in  the 
writings  of  St.  John,  steeped  as  his  mind  was  in 
Hebraic  influences.  The  inferential  "therefore"  is  not 
to  be  found  in  this  Epistle.^     Yet  the  diligent  reader 

'  The  otv  in  ver.  24  is  not  recognised  by  the  R.  V.  nor  adopted 
in  Professor  Westcott's  text.  One  uncial  (A),  however,  inserts  it 
in  I  John  iv.  19.  It  occurs  in  3  John  8.  This  inferential  particle 
is  found  with  unusual  frequency  in  St.  John's  Gospel.  It  does  not 
seem  satisfactory  to  account  for  this  by  calling  it  "  one  of  the  begin- 
nings of  modern  Greek."'  (B.  de  Xivrey.)  By  St.  John  as  an  historian, 
the  frequent  therefore  is  the  spontaneous  recognition  of  a  Divine 
logic  of  events ;  of  the  necessary  yet  natural  sequence  of  every 
incident  in  the  life  of  the  "Word  made  Flesh."  The  oZv  expresses 
something  more  than  continuity  of  narrative.  It  indicates  a  connec- 
tion of  events  so  interlinked  that  each  springs  from,  and  is  joined 
with,  the  preceding,  as  if  it  were  a  conclusion  which  followed  from 
the  premiss  of  the  Divine  argument.  Now  a  mind  which  views 
history  in  this  light  is  just  the  mind  which  will  be  dogmatic  in 
theology.  The  inspired  dogmatic  theologian  will  necessarily  write 
in  a  style  different  from  that  of  the  theologian  of  the  Schools.  The 
style  of  the  former  will  be  oracular ;  that  of  the  latter  will  be  scholastic, 
i.e.,  inferential,  a  concatenation  of  syllogisms.  The  syllogistic  oZv  is 
then  natural!}'  absent  from  St.  John's  Epistles.  The  one  undoubted 
exception  is  3  John  8,  where  a  practical  inference  is  drawn  from 
an  historical  statement  in  ver.  7.  The  writer  may  be  allowed  to 
refer  to  The  Speakers  Commentary,  iv.,  381, 


H.20.  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS,  167 

or  expositor  finds  it  more  difficult  to  detach  any  single 
sentence,  without  loss  to  the  general  meaning,  than 
in  any  other  writing  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
sentence  may  look  almost  as  if  its  letters  were  graven 
brief  and  large  upon  a  block  of  marble,  and  stood  out 
in  oracular  isolation — but  upon  reverent  study  it  will  be 
found  that  the  seemingly  lapidary  inscription  is  one  of 
a  series  with  each  of  which  it  is  indissolubly  connected — 
sometimes  limited,  sometimes  enlarged,  always  coloured 
and  influenced  by  that  which  precedes  and  follows. 

It  is  peculiarly  needful  to  bear  this  observation  in 
mind  in  considering  fully  the  almost  startling  principle 
stated  in  the  verse  which  is  prefixed  to  this  discourse. 
A  kind  of  spiritual  omniscience  appears  to  be  attributed 
to  believers.  Catechisms,  confessions,  creeds,  teachers, 
preachers,  seem  to  be  superseded  by  a  stroke  of  the 
Apostle's  pen,  by  what  we  are  half  tempted  to  consider 
as  a  magnificent  exaggeration.  The  text  sounds  as  if 
it  outstripped  even  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  the 
new  covenant  contained  in  Jeremiah's  prophecy — "  they 
shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every 
man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord  :  for  they  shall 
all  know  Me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest 
of  them."i 

The  passages  just  before  and  after  St.  John's  splendid 
annunciation  ^  in  our  text  are  occupied  with  the  subject 
of  Antichrist,  here  first  mentioned  in  Scripture.  In 
this  section  of  our  Epistle  Antichrist  is  (i)  revealed, 
and  (2)  refuted. 

(i)  Antichrist  is  revealed  by  the  very  crisis  which 
the  Church  was  then  traversing.  From  this  especially, 
from  the  transitory  character  of  a  world  drifting  by 

J 

'  Jer.  xxxi,  34.  *  Vers,  18,  22, 


1 68  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS. 

them  in  unceasing  mutation,  the  Apostle  is  led  to 
consider  this  as  one  of  those  crisis-hours  of  the  Church's 
history,  each  of  which  may  be  the  last  hour,  and  which 
is  assuredly — in  the  language  of  primitive  Christianity — 
a  last  hour.  The  Apostle  therefore  exclaims  with 
fatherly  affection — "  Little  children,  it  is  a  last  hour."^ 

Deep  in  the  heart  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  because 
it  came  from  those  who  had  received  it  from  Christ, 
there  was  one  awful  anticipation.  St.  John  in  this 
passage  gives  it  a  name.  He  remembers  Who  had 
told  the  Jews  that  "  if  another  shall  come  in  his  own 
name,  him  ye  will  receive."  ^  He  can  announce  to  them 
that  "as  ye  have  heard  this  Antichrist  cometh,  even 
so  now  "  (precisely  as  ye  have  heard)  "  many  antichrists 
have  come  into  existence  and  are  around  you,  whereby 
we  know  that  it  is  a  last  hour."  The  name  Antichrist 
occurs  only  in  these  Epistles,  and  seems  purposely 
intended  to  denote  both  one  who  occupies  the  place 
of  Christ,  and  one  who  is  against  Christ.  In  "  the 
Antichrist"  the  antichristian  principle  is  personally 
concentrated.  The  conception  of  representative-men 
is  one  which  has  become  familiar  to  modern  students 
of  the  philosophy  of  history.  Such  representative-men, 
at  once  the  products  of  the  past,  moulders  of  the  present, 

^  The  last  hour  is  not  a  date  arbitrarily  chosen  and  written  down 
as  a  man  might  mark  a  day  for  an  engagement  in  a  calendar.  It  is 
determined  by  history — by  the  sum-total  of  the  product  of  the  actions 
of  men  who  are  not  the  slaves  of  fatality,  who  possess  free-will,  and 
are  not  forced  to  act  in  a  particular  way.  It  is  supposed  to  df.rcgate 
from  the  Divine  mission  of  the  Apostles  if  we  admit  that  they 
might  be  mistaken  as  to  the  chronology  of  the  closing  hour  of  time. 
But  to  know  that  supreme  instant  would  involve  a  knowledge  of 
the  whole  plan  of  God  and  the  whole  predetermining  motives  in  the 
appointment  of  that  day,  i.e.,  it  would  constructively  involve  oinnt- 
science.  Cf.  Mark  xiii.  32,  and  our  Lord's  profound  saying,  Acts  i.  J, 
■  John  V.  43. 


ii.20.]  KNOWING  ALL    THINGS.  169 

and  creative  of  the  future,  sum  up  in  themselves  ten- 
dencies and  principles  good  and  evil,  and  project  them 
in  a  form  equally  compacted  and  intensified  into  the 
coming  generations.  Shadows  and  anticipations  of 
Antichrist  the  holiest  of  the  Church's  sons  have  some- 
times seen,  even  in  the  high  places  of  the  Church. 
But  it  is  evident  that  as  yet  the  Antichrist  has  not 
come.  For  wherever  St.  John  mentions  this  fearful 
impersonation  of  evil,  he  connects  the  manifestation 
of  his  influence  with  absolute  denial  of  the  true  Man- 
hood, of  the  Messiahship,  of  the  everlasting  sonship 
of  Jesus,  of  the  Father,  Who  is  His  and  our  Father.* 
In  negation  of  the  Personality  of  God,  in  the  substitution 
of  a  glittering  but  unreal  idea  of  human  goodness  and 
active  philanthropy  for  the  historical  Christ,  we  of  this 
age  may  not  improbably  hear  his  advancing  footsteps, 
and  foresee  the  advent  of  a  day  when  antichristianity 
shall  find  its  great  representative-man. 

(2)  Antichrist  is  also  refuted  by  a  principle  common 
to  the  life  of  Christians  and  by  its  result. 

The  principle  by  which  he  is  refuted  is  a  gift  of 
insight  lodged  in  the  Church  at  large,  and  partaken  of 
by  all  faithful  souls. 

A  hint  of  a  solemn  crisis  had  been  conveyed  to  the 
Christians  of  Asia  Minor  by  secessions  from  the  great 
Christian  community.  "  They  went  out  from  us,  but 
they  were  not  of  us ;  for  if  they  had  been  of  us,  they 
would  have  continued  with  us  (which  they  did  not,  but 
went  out)  that  they  might  be  made  manifest  that  not 
all  are  of  us."  ^  Not  onl}^  this.  *'  Yea  further,  ye  your- 
selves have  a  hallowing  oil  from  Him  who  is  hallowed, 
a  chrism  from  the  Christ,  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One, 

'  I  John  ii.  22,  iv.  2,  3 ;  2  John  7-9. 
'  Ver.  19. 


I70  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS. 

even  from  the  Son  of  God."  Chrism  (as  we  are  reminded 
by  the  most  accurate  of  scholars)  is  always  the  material 
with  which  anointing  is  performed,  never  the  act  of 
anointing;  it  points  to  the  unction  of  prophets,  priests 
and  kings  under  the  Old  Testament,  in  whose  sacrifices 
and  mystic  language  oil  symbolises  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
the  spirit  of  joy  and  freedom.  Quite  possibly  there 
may  be  some  allusion  to  a  literal  use  of  oil  in  Baptism 
and  Confirmation,  which  began  at  a  very  early  period;* 
though  it  is  equally  possible  that  the  material  may  have 
arisen  from  the  spiritual,  and  not  in  the  reverse  order. 
But  beyond  all  question  the  real  predominant  reference 
is  to  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  chrism  here  mentioned 
there  is  a  feature  characteristic  of  St.  John's  style.  For 
there  is  first  a  faint  prelusive  note  which  (as  we  find 
in  several  other  important  subjects  ^)  is  faintly  struck 
and  seems  to  die  away,  but  is  afterwards  taken  up, 
and  more  fully  brought  out.  The  full  distinct  mention 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  comes  like  a  burst  of  the  music  of 
the  "  Veni  Creator,"  carrying  on  the  fainter  prelude 
when  it  might  seem  to  have  been  almost  lost.  The  first 
reverential,  almost  timid  hint,  is  succeeded  by  another, 
brief  but  significant — almost  dogmatically  expressive  of 
the  relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  Christ  as  His  Chrism, 
"  the  Chrism  of  Him."  ^  We  shall  presently  have  a 
direct  mention  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     **  Hereby  we  know 

1  Bingham's  Atitiquilies.,  i.,  462-524,  565. 

^  For  other  instances  of  this  characteristic,  see  a  subject  introduced 
ii.  29,  expanded  iii.  9 — another  subject  introduced  iii.  21,  expanded  w. 
14. 

^  rh  a\)Tod  xp'^ffna,  ver.  27,  not  rb  avro  ("the  same  anointing,"  A.  V.) 
"This  most  unusual  order  throws  a  strong  emphasis  on  the  pronoun." 
(Prof.  Wcstcott.)  The  writer  thankfully  quotes  this  as  it  seems  to 
him  to  bring  out  the  dogmatic  significance  of  the  word,  emphasised 
as  It  is  by  this  unusual  order — the  chrism,  the  Spirit  oi  Hitn. 


ii.2o]  KNOWING  ALL    THINGS.  171 

that  He  abideth  in  us,  from  the  Spirit  which  He  gave 
us."i 

Antichrist  is  refuted  by  a  result  of  this  great  prin- 
ciple of  the  life  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  living  Church. 
"  Ye  have  "  chrism  from  the  Christ ;  Antichrist  shall  not 
lay  his  unhallowing  disanointing  hand  upon  you.  As 
a  result  of  this,  "  ye  knovi^  all  things."  ^ 

How  are  we  to  understand  this  startling  expression  ? 

If  we  receive  any  teachers  as  messengers  commis- 
sioned by  God,  it  is  evident  that  their  message  must 
be  communicated  to  us  through  the  medium  of  human 
language.  They  come  to  us  with  minds  that  have 
been  in  contact  with  a  Mind  of  infinite  knowledge,  and 
deliver  utterances  of  universal  impart.  They  are  there- 
fore under  an  obligation  to  use  language  which  is 
capable  of  being  misunderstood  by  some  persons.  Our 
Lord  and  His  Apostles  so  spoke  at  times.  Two  very 
different  classes  of  men  constantly  misinterpret  words 
like  those  of  our  text.  The  rationalist  does  so  with  a 
sinister  smile ;  the  fanatic  with  a  cry  of  hysterical 
triumph.  The  first  may  point  his  epigram  with  effec- 
tive reference  to  the  exaggerated  promise  which  is 
belied  by  the  ignorance  of  so  many  ardent  believers ; 
the  second  may  advance  his  absurd  claim  to  personal 
infallibility  in  all  things  spiritual.  Yet  an  Apostle 
calmly  says — "  ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One, 
and  ye  know  all  things."     This,  however,  is  but  another 

'  I  John  iii.  24. 

*  The  reading  of  the  A.  V.  is  received  into  Tischendorf  s  text  and 
adopted  by  the  R.  V.  Another  reading  omits  <fo»  and  substitutes 
jrdjTfs  for  tto-vto.  so  that  the  passage  would  run  thus,  "  Ye  have  an 
unction  from  the  Holy  One.  Ye  all  know  (I  have  not  written  unto 
you  because  ye  know  not)  the  truth."  As  far  as  the  difficulty  of 
TTctfra  is  concerned,  nothing  is  gained  by  the  change,  as  the  statement 
recurs  in  a  slightly  varied  form  in  ver.  27. 


172  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS. 

asterisk  directing  the  eye  to  the  Master's  promise  in 
the  Gospel,  which  is  at  once  the  warrant  and  the  ex- 
planation of  the  utterance  here.  "  The  Holy  Ghost, 
whom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  name,  He  shall  teach 
you  all  thingSj  and  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance, 
whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you."  ^  The  express  limita- 
tion of  the  Saviour's  promise  is  the  implied  limitation 
of  St.  John's  statement.  "  The  Holy  Ghost  has  been 
sent,  according  to  this  unfailing  pledge.  He  teaches 
you  (and,  if  He  teaches,  you  know)  all  things  which 
Christ  has  said,  as  far  as  their  substance  is  written 
down  in  a  true  record — all  things  of  the  new  creation 
spoken  by  our  Lord,  preserved  by  the  help  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  memories  of  chosen  witnesses  with  unfading 
freshness,  by  the  same  Spirit  unfolded  and  interpreted 
to  you." 

We  should  observe  in  what  spirit  and  to  whom  St. 
John  speaks. 

He  does  not  speak  in  the  strain  which  would  be 
adopted  by  a  missionary  in  addressing  men  lately 
brought  out  of  heathenism  into  the  fold  of  Christ.  He 
does  not  like  a  modern  preacher  or  tract-writer  it  once 
divide  his  observations  into  two  parts,  one  for  the 
converted,  one  for  the  unconverted ;  all  are  his  "  dear 
ones"  as  beloved,  his  "sons"  as  brought  into  close 
spiritual  relationship  with  himself.  He  classes  them 
simply  as  young  and  old,  with  their  respective  graces 
of  strength  and  knowledge.  All  are  looked  upon  as 
"  abiding";  almost  the  one  exhortation  is  to  abide  unto 
the  end  in  a  condition  upon  which  all  have  already 
entered,  and  in  which  some  have  long  continued.  We 
feel  throughout  the  calmness  and  assurance  of  a  spii-itual 

'  John  xiv.  26. 


ii.2o.]  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS.  173 

teacher  writing  to  Christian  men  who  had  either  been 
born  in  the  atmosphere  of  Christian  tradition,  or 
had  lived  in  it  for  many  years.  They  are  again  and 
again  appealed  to  on  the  ground  of  a  common  Christian 
confidence — "  we  know."  They  have  all  the  articles 
of  the  Christian  creed,  the  great  inheritance  of  a  faith- 
ful summary  of  the  words  and  works  of  Christ.  The 
Gospel  which  Paul  at  first  preached  in  Asia  Minor 
was  the  starting  point  of  the  truth  which  remained 
among  them,  illustrated,  expanded,  applied,  but  abso- 
lutely unaltered.^  What  the  Christians  whom  St.  John 
has  in  view  really  want  is  the  revival  of  familiar  truths, 
not  the  impartation  of  new.  No  spiritual  voyage  of 
discovery  is  needed ;  they  have  only  to  explore  well- 
known  regions.  The  memory  and  the  affections  must 
be  stimulated.  The  truths  which  have  become  "  cramped 
and  bed-ridden "  in  the  dormitory  of  the  soul  must 
acquire  elasticity  from  exercise.  The  accumulation  of 
ashes  must  be  blown  away,  and  the  spark  of  fire 
beneath  fanned  into  flame.  This  capacity  of  revival, 
of  expansion,  of  quickened  life,  of  developed  truth,  is 
in  the  unction  common  to  the  faithful,  in  the  latent 
possibilities  of  the  new  birth.  The  same  verse  to 
which  we  have  before  referred  as  the  best  interpreter 
of  this  should  be  consulted  again.*  There  is  an  in- 
structive distinction  between  the  tenses — "as  His 
unction  is  teaching  " — "  as  it  taught  you."  ^   The  teaching 


*  "Let  that  abide  in  you  which  ye  heard  from  the  beginning," 
I  John  ii.  24.  Cf.  "Testifying  that  this  is  the  true  grace  of  God  where- 
in ye  stand,"  I  Pet.  v,  12.  "  Even  as  our  beloved  brother  Paul  has 
written  unto  you,"  2  Pet.  iii.  15.  St.  Paul  has  thus  the  attestation  of 
St.  John  as  well  as  of  St.  Peter. 

*  Ver.  27 

*  SiSaff/cet — eSiSofei'. 


174  KNOWING  ALL    THINGS. 

was  once  for  all,  the  creed  definite  and  fixed,  the 
body  of  truth  a  sum-total  looked  upon  as  one.  "  The 
unction  taught.'^  Once  for  all  the  Holy  Spirit  made 
known  the  Incarnation  and  stamped  the  recorded  words 
of  Christ  with  His  seal.  But  there  are  depths  of 
thought  about  His  person  which  need  to  be  reverently 
explored.  There  is  an  energy  in  His  work  which  was 
not  exhausted  in  the  few  years  of  its  doing,  and  which 
is  not  imprisoned  within  the  brief  chronicle  in  which 
it  is  written.  There  is  a  spirit  and  a  life  in  His  words. 
In  one  aspect  they  have  the  strength  of  the  tornado, 
which  advances  in  a  narrow  line ;  but  every  foot  of  the 
column,  as  if  armed  with  a  tooth  of  steel,  grinds  and 
cuts  into  pieces  all  which  resists  it.  Those  words  have 
also  depths  of  tenderness,  depths  of  wisdom,  into  which 
eighteen  centuries  have  looked  down  and  never  yet 
seen  the  last  of  their  meaning.  Advancing  time  does 
but  broaden  the  interpretation  of  the  wisdom  and  the 
sympathy  of  those  words.  Applications  of  their  signi- 
ficance are  being  discovered  by  Christian  souls  in  forms 
as  new  and  manifold  as  the  claims  of  human  need. 
The  Church  collectively  is  like  one  sanctified  mind 
meditating  incessantly  upon  the  Incarnation  ;  attaining 
more  and  more  to  an  understanding  of  that  character 
as  it  widens  in  a  circle  of  glory  round  the  form  of  its 
historical  manifestation — considering  how  those  words 
may  be  applied  not  only  to  self  but  to  humanity.  The 
new  wants  of  each  successive  generation  bring  new 
help  out  of  that  inexhaustib'e  store.  The  Church  may 
have  "  decided  opinions  "  ;  but  she  has  not  the  "  deep 
slumber"  which  is  said  to  accompany  them.  How 
can  she  be  fast  asleep  who  is  ever  learning  from  a 
teacher  Who  is  always  supplying  her  with  fresh  and 
varied  lessons  ?     The  Church  must  be  ever  learng,in 


ii  20.]  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS.  175 

because  the  anointing  which  "taught"  once  for  all  is 
also  ever  "teaching." 

This  profound  saying  is  therefore  chiefly  true  of 
Christians  as  a  whole.  Yet  each  individual  believer 
may  surely  have  a  part  in  it.  "  There  is  a  teacher  in 
the  heart  who  has  also  a  chair  in  heaven."  "  The 
Holy  Spirit  who  dwells  in  the  justified  soul,"  says  a 
pious  writer,  "is  a  great  director."  May  we  not  add 
that  He  is  a  great  catechist  ?  In  difficulties,  whether 
worldly,  intellectual,  or  spiritual,  thousands  for  a  time 
helpless  and  ignorant,  in  presence  of  difficulties  through 
which  they  could  not  make  their  way,  have  found  with 
surprise  how  true  in  the  sequel  our  text  has  become 
to  them. 

For  we  all  know  how  different  things,  persons,  truths, 
ideas  may  become,  as  they  are  seen  at  different  times 
and  in  different  lights,  as  they  are  seen  in  relation  to 
God  and  truth  or  outside  that  relation.  The  bread  in 
Holy  Communion  is  unchanged  in  substance;  but  some 
new  and  glorious  relation  is  superadded  to  it.  It  is 
devoted  by  its  consecration  to  the  noblest  use  man- 
ward  and  Godward,  so  that  St.  Paul  speaks  of  it  with 
hushed  reverence  as  "  The  BodyT^  It  seems  to  be  a 
part  of  the  same  law  that  some  one — once  perhaps 
frivolous,  common-place,  sinful — is  taken  into  the  hand 
of  the  great  High  Piiest,  broken  with  sorrow  and 
penitence,  and  blessed ;  and  thereafter  he  is  at  once 
personally  the  same,  and  yet  another  higher  and  better 
by  that  awful  consecration  to  another  use.  So  again 
with  some  truth  of  creed  or  catechism  which  we  have 
fallen  into  the  fallacy  of  supposing  that  we  know 
because  it  is  familiar.     It  may  be  a  truth  that  is  sweet 

•  I  Cor.  xi.  29. 


176  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS. 

or  one  that  is  tremendous.  It  awaits  its  consecration, 
its  blessing,  its  transformation  into  a  somxthing  which 
in  itself  is  the  same  yet  which  is  other  to  us.  That  is 
to  say,  the  familiar  truth  is  old,  in  itself,  in  substance 
and  expression.  It  needs  no  other,  and  can  have  no 
better  formula.  To  change  the  formula  would  be  to 
alter  the  truth ;  but  to  us  it  is  taught  newly  with  a 
fuller  and  nobler  exposition  by  the  unction  which  is 
"  ever  teaching,"  whereby  we  "  know  all  things." 

NOTES. 

Ch.  ii.  18-28. 

Ver.  18.  A  last  hour,']  eaxarr)  wpa.  "Hour"  is  used  in 
all  St.  John's  writings  of  a  definite  point  of  time,  which  is 
also  providentially  fixed.  (Cf.  John  xvii.  i  ;  Apoc.  iii.  3.)  In 
something  of  this  elevated  signification  Shakespeare  appears 
to  employ  the  word  in  The  lcin;pest  in  relation  to  his  own  life  : 

Prospero.     "  How's  the  day  ?  " 

Ariel.     "On  the  si.xili  hour ;  at  which  time,  my  lord, 
You  said  our  work  should  cease." 

Each  decade  of  years  is  here  looked  upon  as  a  providentially 
txed  duration  of  time.  The  poet  intended  to  retire  from  the 
work  of  imaginative  poetry  when  his  life  should  draw  on 
towards  sixty  years  of  age. 

Ver.  19.  "  It  doth  not  appear,  nor  is  it  probable,  that  these 
antichrists,  when  gone  out  from  the  Apostles,  did  still  pretend 
to  the  orthodox  faith ;  and  therefore  no  need  for  the  Apostle 
to  make  any  provision  against  it.  Nay,  it  is  plainly  intimated 
by  the  following  discourse,  that  these  antichrists  being  gone 
forth,  did  set  themselves  expressly,  directly,  against  the 
orthodox,  denying  that  Jesus,  whom  they  did  profess,  to  be 
the  Christ ;  and  therefore  the  design  of  this  clause  is  most 
rationally  conceived  to  be  the  prevention  of  that  scandal 
which  their  horrid  apostasy  might  give  to  weak  Christians 
nor  could  anything  more  effectually  prevent  or  remove  it,  than 
to  let  them  know  that  these  antichristian  apostates  were  never 


KNOWING  ALL   THINGS.  1 77 

true  stars  in  the  firmament  of  the  Church,  but  only  blazing 
comets,  as  their  falling  away  did  evidently  demonstrate." — 
Dean  Hardy.,  309. 

Ver.  19.  To  use  the  words  of  a  once  famous  controversial 

divine,  they  may  be  said  to  be  "  of  the  Church  presumptively 

in  their  own,  and  others'  opinion,  but  not  really."     [Sj>alai., 

lib.  vii.,  10,  cf.  on  the  whole  subject,  Si.  Aug.  Lib.  de  Bono. 

Persev.,  viii.) 

"Let  no  one  count  that  the  good  can  go  forth  from  the 
Church  ;  the  wind  cannot  carry  away  the  wheat,  nor  the  storm 
overthrow  the  solidly  rooted  tree.  The  light  chaff  is  tossed 
by  the  wind,  the  weak  trees  go  down  before  the  blast.  *  They 
went  out  from  us,  but  they  were  not  of  us.'  " — S.  Cyp.,  B.  de 
Siniplic. 

Ver.  24.  Ye  shall  abide  in  the  Son,  andi?i  the  Father. "]  "  If 
it  be  asked  why  the  Son  is  put  before  the  Father,  the  answer 
is  well  returned.  Because  the  Apostle  had  just  before  in- 
veighed against  those  who,  though  they  pretended  to  acknow- 
ledge the  Father,  yet  deny  the  Son.  Though  withal  there 
may  besides  be  a  double  reason  assigned:  the  one  to  insinuate 
that  the  Son  is  not  less  than  the  Father,  but  that  they  are 
equal  in  essence  and  dignity.  Upon  this  account  most 
probable  it  is  that  the  apostolical  benediction  beginneth  with 
'  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  and  then  foUoweth 
'  the  love  of  God  the  Father.'  The  other,  because,  as  Beda 
well  glosseth,  No  man  cometh  in,  or  continueth  in,  the  Father 
but  by  the  Son,  who  saith  of  Himself,  '  I  am  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life.' 

"To  draw  it  up,  lo,  here  Bximia-laus  doctrines,  an  high 
commendation  of  evangelical  doctrine,  that  it  leads  up  to 
Christ,  and  by  Him  to  the  Father.  The  water  riseth  as  high 
as  the  spring  from  whence  it  fioweth.  No  wonder  if  the 
gospel,  which  cometh  from  God  through  Christ,  lead  us  back 
again  through  Christ  to  God;  and  as  by  hearing  and  believing 
this  doctrine  we  are  united  to,  so  by  adhering  to,  and  per- 
severing in  it,  we  continue  in,  the  Son  and  the  Father.  Suitable 
to  this  is  that  promise  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  John  xiv.  23, 
'  If  any  man  love  Me  he  will  keep  My  word,  and  My  Father 
will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  to  him  and  make  our  abode 
with  him.'  " — Dea7i  Hardy,  350. 

12 


178  KNOWING  ALL   THINGS. 

_ 

Ver.  27.  The  connection  of  the  whole  section  is  well  traced 
by  the  old  divine,  whose  commentary  closes  a  little  below. 

"  If  you  compare  these  three  with  the  eight  foregoing  verses, 
you  shall  find  them  to  be  a  summary  repetition  of  what  is 
there  more  largely  delivered.  There  are  three  hinges  upon 
which  the  precedent  discourse  turneth,  namely,  the  peril  of 
antichristian  doctrine,  the  benefit  of  the  Spirit's  unction,  the 
duty  of  perseverance  in  the  Christian  faith  ;  and  these  three 
are  inculcated  in  these  verses.  Indeed,  where  the  danger 
is  very  great,  the  admonition  cannot  be  too  frequent.  When 
the  benefit  is  of  singular  advantage,  it  would  be  often  con- 
sidered, and  a  duty  which  must  be  performed  cannot  be  too 
much  pressed.  No  wonder  if  St.  John  proposed  them  in  this 
gemination  to  our  second  thoughts.  And  yet  it  is  not  a  naked 
repetition  neithc",  but  such  as  hath  a  variation  and  amplifica- 
tion in  every  particular.  The  duty  is  reinforced  at  the  eight- 
and-twentieth  verse,  but  in  another  phrase,  of  '  abiding  in 
Christ,'  and  with  a  new  motive,  drawn  from  the  second 
coming  of  Christ.  The  benefit  is  reiterated,  and  much 
amplified,  in  the  seven-and-twentieth  verse,  as  to  its  ex- 
cellency and  energy.  Finally,  the  danger  is  repeated,  but 
with  another  description  of  those  by  whom  they  were  in 
danger ;  whilst  as  before  he  had  called  them  antichrists  for 
their  enmity  against  Christ,  so  here,  for  their  malignity  against 
Christians,  he  calleth  them  seducers  :  '  These  things  have  I 
written  to  you  concerning  them  that  seduce  you,'  etc." — Dean 
Hardy,  357. 


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NOTES. 

Ch.  ii.  29,  iii.  9. 

III.  ver.  2.  ** Hope  fixed  in  Him'"  or  "on  Him."]  The 
English  reader  should  note  the  capital  letter;  not  hope  in 
our  hearts,  but  hope  unfastened  from  self.  'Erri  o-oi  Kvptt 
i]\T:iaa,  is  the  LXX.  translation  of  Psalm  xxx.  i. 

Is  ever  purifying  himself.']  "  See  how  he  does  not  do 
away  with  freewill ;  for  he  says  purifies  himself.  Who 
purifies  us  but  God  ?  Yet  God  does  not  purify  you  when 
you  are  unwilling ;  therefore  in  joining  your  will  to  God  you 
purify  yourself."     (St.  Augustine  in  loc.') 

We  shall  be  like  Him  ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.'] 
"  So  then  we  are  about  to  see  a  certain  sight,  excelling  all 
beauties  of  the  earth  ;  the  beauty  of  gold,  silver,  forest,  fields — 
the  beauty  of  sea  and  air,  sun  and  moon — the  beauty  of  stars — 
the  beauty  of  angels.  Aye,  excelling  all  these,  because  all  these 
are  beautiful  only  for  ?'/.  What,  therefore,  shall  we  be  when 
we  shall  see  all  these  ?  What  is  promised  ?  TVe  shall  be 
like  Him  ;  for  we  shall  see  Hi77t  as  He  is.  The  tongue  hath 
spoken  as  it  could  ;  let  the  rest  be  thought  over  by  the  heart " 
(St.  Augustine  in  loc).  Cf.  2  Cor.  iii.  18.  "  As  the  whole  body, 
face,  above  all  eyes  of  those  who  look  towards  the  sun  are 
szinnied ' '  (insolantur). — Beiigel. 

Ver.  3.  The  ample  stores  of  English  divinity  contain  two 
sermons,  one  excellent,  one  beautiful,  upon  this  verse.  The 
first  is  by  Paley ;  it  is  founded  upon  the  leading  thought, 
which  he  expresses  with  his  usual  manly  common  sense. 
"  There  are  a  class  of  Christians  to  whom  the  admonition 
of  the  text  is  peculiarly  necessary.  Finding  it  an  easier  thing 
to  do  good  than  to  expel  sins  which  cleave  to  their  hearts, 
their  affections,  or  their  imaginations  ;  they  set  their  en- 
deavours more  towards  beneficence  tha.n  purily.     Doing  good 


i82  .  NOTES. 

is  not  the  whole  of  our  duty,  nor  the  most  difficult  part  of  it. 
In  particular  it  is  not  that  part  of  it  which  is  insisted  upon  in 
our  text."  (Paley,  Sermon  XLIII.)  But  the  second  sermon  is 
perhaps  the  finest  which  ever  came  from  the  pen  of  South,  and 
he  throws  into  it  the  full  power  of  his  heart  and  intellect.  The 
bare  analysis  is  this  : — 

Is   it  indeed  possible   for    a  man  to   "purify  himself"? 
There  is  a  twofold  work  of  purification,     (i)  The  infusing  of 
the  habit  of  purity  into  the  soul  (regeneration  or  conversion). 
In  this  respect,  no  man  can  purify  himself.     (2)  The  other 
work  of  purification  is  exercising  that  habit  or  grace  of  purity. 
"  God  who  made,  and  since  new  made  us,  without  ourselves, 
will  not  yet  save  us  without  ourselves."     But  again,  how  can 
a  man  purify  himself  to  that  degree  even  as  Christ  is  fure't 
Even  as  denotes  similitude  of  kind,  not  equality  of  degree. 
We  are  to  purify  ourselves  from  the  -power  of  sin,  and  fron 
the  guilt  of  sin.    Purification  from  \\\^;poivcr  of  sin  consists  i. 
these  things,     (i)  A  continually  renewed  repentance.    Even 
day,  every  hour,  may  afford   matter  for  penitential  sorrow 
"A  fountain  of  sin  may  well  require  a  fountain  of  sorrow.' 
Converting  repentance  must  be  followed  by  daily  repentancf 
(2)  Purifying  ourselves  consists  in  vigilant  prevention  of  aci 
of  sin  for  the  future.     The  means  of  effecting  this  are  these. 
[a)  Opposing  the  very  first  risings  of  the  le  irt  to  sin.     "  The 
bees  may  be  at  work,  and  very  busy  wi  hli,  though  we  see 
none  of  them  fly  abroad."   {b)  Severe  mortifying  duties,  such  as 
watchings  and  fastings,    (c)  Frequent  and  fervent  prayer.    "  A 
praying  heart  naturally  turns  into  a  purified  heart."     We  are 
topurify  ourselves,  also,  from  the ^z^/// of  sin.     (i)  Negatively. 
No  duty  or  work  within  our  power  to  perform  can  take  away 
the  guilt  of  sin.    Those  who  think  so,  understand  neither  "  the 
fiery  strictness  of  the  law,  nor  the  spirituality  of  the  Gospel." 
(2)  That  which  alone  can  purify  us  from  the  guilt  of  sin  is 
applying  the  virtue  of  the   blood  of  Christ  to  the  soul  by 
renewed  acts  of  faith.     "  It  is  that  alone  that  is  able  to  wash 
away  the  deep  stain,  and  to  change  the  hue  of  the  spiritual 
Ethiopian."     The  last  consideration  is — how  the  life  of  heaven 
and  future  glory  has  such  a  sovereign  influence  upon  this  work  ? 
[This  portion  of  the  sermon  falls  far  below  the  high  standard 
of  the  rest,  and  entirely  loses  the  spirit  of  St.  John's  thought.] 
South's  Sermons,    (Sermon  72,  pp.  594-616.) 


NOTES.  183 

Ver.  6.  Thai  He  might  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil.'] 
The  word  here  used  for  Satan  (8ia;3oXoy)  is  given  in  John  vii. 
70,  viii.  44,  xiii.  2  ,  Apoc.  ii.  10,  xii.  9,  12,  xx.  2,  10.  One  class 
of  miracles  is  not  specifically  recorded  by  St.  John  in  his 
Gospel— the  dispossession  of  demoniacs.  Probably  this 
terrible  affliction  was  less  common  in  Jerusalem  than  in 
Galilee,  But  the  idea  of  possession  is  not  foreign  to  his 
mode  of  thought.  John  vi.  70,  viii.  44,  48,  x.  20,  xiii.  27. 
He  here  points  to  the  dispossessions,  so  many  of  which  are 
recorded  by  the  Synoptics. 

III.  ver.  9.  His  seed  abideth  in  him."]  Of  these  words 
only  two  interpretations  appear  to  be  fairly  possible,  (i)  The 
first  would  understand  "His  seed"  as  "God's  seed,"  the 
stock  or  family  of  His  children  who  are  the  true  D^'l^?^  ^It,  seed 
of  God  (Mai.  ii.  15).  In  favour  of  this  intrepretation  it 
may  be  urged  :  first,  that  "  seed  "  in  the  sense  of  "  children, 
posterity,  any  one's  entire  stock  and  filiation,"  in  perhaps 
nearly  two  hundred  passages  of  the  LXX.,  is  the  Grcnk 
rendering  of  many  different  Hebrew  words.  (See  anipiia  m 
Num.  xxiv.  20;  Deut.  xxv.  i;  Jer.  1.  16;  Gen.  iii.  15; 
Isa.  xiv.  22;  Num.  xxiii.  10;  Isa.  xv.  9;  2  Chron.  xiv.  27; 
Isa.  xiv,  30.)  Secondly,  no  inapt  meaning  is  given  in  the 
present  text  by  so  understanding  the  word.  "  He  is  unable  to 
go  on  in  sin,  for  God^s  true  stock  and  family  (they  who  are 
true  to  the  majesty  of  their  birth)  abide  in  Him."  (2)  But  a 
second  meaning  appears  preferable.  "  Seed  "  (o-Tr/pjua)  would 
then  be  understood  as  a  metaphorical  application  cf  the  grain 
in  the  vegetable  world  which  contains  the  possible  genn  of  the 
future  plant  or  tree ;  and  would  signify  the  possibility,  cr 
germinal  principle,  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  soul  in 
regeneration.  For  this  signification  in  our  passage  there  is 
a  strong  argument,  which  we  have  not  seen  adverted  to,  in 
St.  John's  mode  of  language  and  of  thought.  "  His  seed 
abideth  in  him  "  [a-nepua  avrov  eVatroi  fifvfi)  is  really  a  quotation 
from  the  LXX,  (o£  to  airtpixa  avrov  eV  aira — note  the  repetition 
of  the  words  Gen.  i.  11,  12).  Now  the  Book  of  Genesis 
seems  to  have  been  the  part  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
(with  the  Psalms)  was  chiefly  in  St.  John's  mind  in  the  Epistle. 
(Cf.  I  John  i.  1,  Gen.  i.  i,— iii,  8,  Gen.  ii. — iii.  12,  Gen,  iv,  8 — 
iii,  15,  Gen.  xxvii.  41.)  St.  John,  also,  connects  the  new  birth 
of  the  sons  of  God,  as  did  our  Lord,  with  the  birth  of  the 


i84  NOTES. 

creation,  whose  first  germ  was  "the  Spirit  of  God  moving 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters"  (Gen.  i.  2  ;  John  iii.  5),  This 
parallel  between  the  first  creation  and  the  second,  between 
creation  and  regeneration,  has  always  commended  itself  to 
profound  Christian  exegesis  as  being  deeply  set  in  the  mind 
of  Scripture.     Witness  the  magnificent  lines. 

Plebs  ut  sacra  renascatur, 
Per  Hunc  iinda  consecratur, 
Cui  super  ferebatur 

In  rerum  exordium. 
Fons,  origo  pietatis, 
Fons  emundans  a  peccatis, 
Fons  de  fonte  Deitatis, 

Fons  sacrator  fontium  ! 

Adam  of  St.  Victor,  Seq.  xx.,  Pentecoste. 

It  is  instructive,  to  study  the  treatment  of  our  Lord's  words 
(John  iii.  5)  by  a  commentator  so  little  mystical  as  Professor 
Westcott.  St.  John,  then,  might  point  at  this  as  another  hint 
of  regeneration  in  the  parable  of  creation,  viewed  spiritually. 
The  world  of  vegetation  in  Genesis  is  divided  into  two  classes, 
(i)  Herbs  y^V.  =  all  grasses  and  plants  which  '^ yield  seed^ 
(2)  Trees  *"1Q  )*1?  =  shrubs  and  arboreous  plants  which  have  their 
seed  enclosed  in  their  fruit  (Gen.  i.  11,  12).  Such  are  the 
plants  of  God's  planting  in  His  garden.  Of  each  the  "  seed  " 
from  which  he  sprung,  and  which  he  will  reproduce  unless  he 
becomes  barren  and  blighted,  "  is  in  him."  "  He  cannot 
sin."  It  is  against  the  basis  of  his  new  nature.  Of  the  new 
creation  as  of  the  old,  the  law  is — "  his  seed  is  in  him." 

The  rest  of  this  verse  is  interpreted  in  the  Discourse  upon 
I  John  V.  4. 


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DISCOURSE   IX. 

LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS  UNLESS  APPLIED. 

"  Hereby  perceive  we  the  love  of  God,  because  He  laid  down  His 
life  for  us  :  and  we  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren. 
But  whoso  hath  this  world's  good,  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how  dwelleth 
the  love  of  God  in  him?  My  little  children,  let  us  not  love  in  word, 
neither  in  tongue,  but  in  deed  and  in  truth." — I  John  iii.  16-18. 

E]*VEN  the  world  sees  that  the  Incarnation  of  Jesus 
^  Christ  has  very  practical  results.  Even  the 
Christmas  which  the  world  keeps  is  fruitful  in  two 
of  these  results — forgiving  and  giving.  How  many 
of  the  multitudinous  letters  at  that  season  contain  one 
or  other  of  these  things — either  the  kindly  gift,  or  the 
tender  of  reconciliation  ;  the  confession  "  I  was  wrong," 
or  the  gentle  advance  "  we  were  both  wrong." 

Love,  charity  (as  we  rather  prefer  to  say),  in  its 
effects  upon  all  our  relations  to  others,  is  the  beautiful 
subject  of  this  section  of  our  Epistle,  It  begins  with 
the  message  of  love  ^  itself — yet  another  asterisk  refer- 
ring to  the  Gospel,^  to  the  very  substance  of  the  teaching 
which  the  believers  of  Ephesus  had  first  received  from 
St.  Paul,^  and  which  had  been  emphasized  by  St.  John. 

•  Ver.  II. 

'  John  XV.  12-17,  See  also  the  stress  laid  upon  the  unity  of 
believers;  surely  including  love  as  well  as  doctrine  in  the  great 
High-Priestly  prayer,  John  xvii.  21-23. 

*  " The  message  that  ye  heard  from  the  beginning"  conf.  I  John 
ii.  24. 


tOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS   UNLESS  APPLIED.    1S9 

This  message  is  announced  not  merely  as  a  sound- 
ing sentiment,  but  for  the  purpose  of  being  carried 
out  into  action.  As  in  moral  subjects  virtues  and  vices 
are  best  illustrated  by  their  contraries*;  so,  beside  the 
bright  picture  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  Apostle  points 
to  the  sinister  likeness  of  Cain.^  After  some  brief 
and  parenthetic  words  of  pathetic  consolation,  he  states 
as  the  mark  of  the  great  transition  from  death  to 
life,  the  existence  of  love  as  a  pervading  spirit  effec- 
tual in  operation.^  The  dark  opposite  of  this  is  then 
delineated  *  in  consonance  with  the  mode  of  representa- 
tion just  above.^  But  two  such  pictures  of  darkness 
must  not  shadow  the  sunlit  gallery  of  love.  There  is 
another — the  fairest  and  brightest.  Our  love  can  only 
be  estimated  by  likeness  to  it ;  it  is  imperfect  unless  it 
is  conformed  to  the  print  of  the  wounds,  unless  it  can 
be  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  great  Self-sacrifice.® 
But  if  this  may  be  claimed  as  the  one  real  proof  of 
conformity  to  Christ,  much  more  is  the  limited  partial 


'  "Contrariorum  eadem  est  scientia." 

*  This  is  one  of  the  few  references  to  the  Old  Testament  history 
in  St.  John's  Epistle  (Gen.  iv.  1-8),  To  the  theology  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment there  are  many  references ;  e.g.,  light  and  life.  I  John  i.  I-5  ; 
John  i.  4 ;  Ps.  xxxvi.  9.  There  is,  however,  another  historical  refer- 
ence a  few  verses  above  (l  John  iii.  8) — a  passage  of  primary 
impo.'tance  because  it  recognises  the  whole  narrative  of  the  Fall  in 
Genesis,  and  affords  a  commentary  upon  the  words  of  Christ  (John 
viii.  44).  The  writer  has  somewhere  seen  an  interesting  suggestion 
that  ver.  12  may  contain  some  allusion  to  the  visit  ofApoUonius  of 
Tyana  to  Ephesus.  Apollonius  incited  the  mob  to  kill  a  beggar-man 
for  the  purpose  of  placing  himself  on  a  level  with  Chalcas  and  others 
who  caused  the  sacrifice  of  human  victims.  The  date  of  this  incident 
would  apparently  coincide  with  the  closing  years  of  St,  John's  life 
{Philostrat.  vita  Afollon.^  Act.  ii.,  S.  5). 

*  Vcr.  14.  •  Ver.  12. 

*  Vers.  14,  15.  •  Ver.  16. 


I90  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

sacrifice  of  "this  world's  good"  required.^  This  spirit, 
and  the  conduct  which  it  requires  in  the  long  run,  will 
be  found  to  be  the  test  of  all  solid  spiritual  comfort,^  of 
all  true  self-condemnation  or  self-acquittal.^ 

We  may  say  of  the  verses  prefixed  to  this  discourse, 
that  they  bring  before  us  charity  in  its  idea,  in  its 
example,  in  its  characteristics — in  theory,  in  action,  in 
life. 

I. 

We  have  here  love  in  its  idea,  "  hereby  know  we 
love."     Rather  "hereby  know  we  The  Love."*^ 

Here  the  idea  of  charity  in  us  runs  parallel  with  that 
in  Christ.  It  is  a  subtle  but  true  remark,^  that  there 
is  here  no  logical  inferential  particle.  "  Because  He 
laid  down  His  life  for  us,"  is  not  followed  by  its  natural 
correlative  "  therefore  we,"  but  by  a  simple  connective 
*'  and  we."  The  reason  is  this,  that  our  duty  herein 
is  not  a  mere  cold  logical  deduction.  It  is  all  of  one 
piece  with  The  Love.  "  We  know  The  Love  because 
He  laid  down  His  life  for  us ;  and  we  are  in  duty 
bound  for  the  brethren  to  lay  down  our  lives." 

Here,  then,  is  the  idea  of  love,  as  capable  of  realisation 
in  us.  It  is  continuous  unselfishness,  to  be  crowned 
by  voluntary  death,  if  death  is  necessary.  The  beauti- 
ful old  Church  tradition  shows  that  this  language  was 
the  language  of  St.  John's  life.  Who  has  forgotten 
how  the  Apostle  in  his  old  age  is  said  to  have  gone 

•  Ver.  17. 

•  Vers.  18,  19. 

•  Vers.  20,  21. 

•  "  For  The  Love  I  rather  beseech  thee  "  (Phil.  v.  9).  The  addition 
in  the  A.V.  {of  God)  rather  impairs  the  sweetness  and  power,  the 
reverential  reserve  of  the  original. 

•  Of  Prof.  Westcott. 


iiLi6.i8.]  UNLESS  APPLIED.  19X 

on  a  journey  to  find  the  young  man  who  had  fled  from 
Ephesus  and  joined  a  band  of  robbers ;  and  to  have 
appealed  to  the  fugitive  in  words  which  are  the  pathetic 
echo  of  these — "  if  needs  be  I  would  die  for  thee  as  He 
for  us  ?  " 

II. 

The  idea  of  charity  is  then  practically  illustrated  by 
an  incident  of  its  opposite.  "  But  whoso  hath  this 
world's  good,  and  gazes  upon  his  brother  in  need,  and 
shuts  up  his  heart  against  him,  how  doth  the  love  of 
God  abide  in  him  ? "  ^  The  reason  for  this  descent 
in  thought  is  wise  and  sound.  High  abstract  ideas 
expressed  in  lofty  and  transcendent  language,  are  at 
once  necessary  and  dangerous  for  creatures  like  us. 
They  are  necessary,  because  without  these  grand  con- 
ceptions our  moral  language  and  our  moral  life  would 
be  wanting  in  dignity,  in  amplitude,  in  the  inspiration 
and  impulse  which  are  often  necessary  for  duty  and 
always  for  restoration.  But  they  are  dangerous  in 
proportion  to  their  grandeur.  Men  are  apt  to  mistake 
the  emotion  awakened  by  the  very  sound  of  these 
magnificent  expressions  of  duty  for  the  discharge  of 
the  duty  itself.  Hypocrisy  delights  in  sublime  specula- 
tions, because  it  has  no  intention  of  their  costing  any- 
thing. Some  of  the  most  abject  creatures  embodied 
by  the  masters  of  romance  never  fail  to  parade  their 
sonorous  generalizations.  One  of  such  characters,  as 
the  world  will  long  remember,  proclaims  that  sympathy 
is  one  of  the  holiest  principles  of  our  common  nature, 
while  he  shakes  his  fist  at  a  beggar.^ 

'  Ver.  17. 

*  It  is  suggestive  that  on  Quinquagesima  Sundaj',  when  I  Cor.  xiii. 
is  the  Epistle,  St.  Luke  xviii.  31  sqq.,  is  the  Gospel.  The  lyric  of  love 
is  joined  with  a  fragment  of  its  epic.     That  fragment  tells  us  of  a 


i9«  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

Every  large  speculative  ideal  then  is  liable  to  this 
danger;  and  he  who  contemplates  it  requires  to  be 
brought  down  from  his  transcendental  region  to  the 
♦■est  of  some  commonplace  duty.  This  is  the  latent 
link  of  connection  in  this  passage.  The  ideal  of  love 
to  which  St.  John  points  is  the  loftiest  of  all  the  moral 
and  spiritual  emotions  which  belong  to  the  sentiments 
of  man.  Its  archetype  is  in  the  bosom  of  God,  in  the 
eternal  relations  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 
"  God  is  love."  Its  home  in  humanity  is  Christ's  heart 
of  fire  and  flesh ;  its  example  is  the  Incarnation  ending 
in  the  Cross. 

Now  of  course  the  question  for  all  but  one  in  thou- 
sands is  not  the  attainment  of  this  lofty  ideal — laying 
down  his  life  for  the  brethren.  Now  and  then,  indeed, 
the  physician  pays  with  his  own  death  for  the  heroic 
rashness  of  drawing  out  from  his  patient  the  fatal  matter. 
Sometimes  the  pastor  is  cut  off  by  fever  contracted  in 
ministering  to  the  sick,  or  by  voluntarily  living  and 
working  in  an  unwholesome  atmosphere.  Once  or 
twice  in  a  decade  some  heart  is  as  finely  touched  by 
the  spirit  of  love  as  Father  Damien,  facing  the  certainty 
of  death  from  a  long  slow  putrefaction,  that  a  congrega- 
tion of  lepers  may  enjoy  the  consolations  of  faith.  St. 
John  here  reminds  us  that  the  ordinary  test  of  charity 
is  much  more  commonplace.  It  is  helpful  compassion 
to  a  brother  who  is  known  to  be  in  need,  manifested  by 
giving  to  him  something  of  this  world's  "  good  " — cf 
the  "  living"^  of  this  world  which  he  possesses. 

love  which  not  only  proclaimed  itself  ready  to  be  sacrificed  (Luke 
xviii.  31-33),  but  condescended  individually  to  the  blind  importunate 
mendicant  who  sat  by  the  wayside  begging  (vers.  35-43). 

'  The  word  here  is  ^ios  not  fw^.  '•  Bios  period  of  life ;  hence 
the  means  by  which  it  is  sustained,  means  of  life,"    (Archbp.  Trench.) 


iii.  1 6- 1 8.]  UNLESS  APPLIED  193 

III. 

We  have  next  the  characteristics  of  love  in  action. 
"  My  sons,  let  us  not  love  in  word  nor  with  the  tongue ; 
but  in  work  and  truth."  There  is  love  in  its  energy 
and  reality  ;  in  its  effort  and  sincerity — active  and 
honest,  without  indolence  and  without  pretence.  We 
may  well  be  reminded  here  of  another  familiar  story 
of  St,  John  at  Ephesus.  When  too  old  to  walk  himself 
to  the  assembly  of  the  Church,  he  was  carried  there. 
The  Apostle  who  had  lain  upon  the  breast  of  Jesus ; 
who  had  derived  from  direct  communication  with  Him 
those  words  and  thoughts  which  are  the  life  of  the  elect ; 
was  expected  to  address  the  faithful.  The  light  of  the 
Ephesian  summer  fell  upon  his  white  hair ;  perhaps 
glittered  upon  the  mitre  which  tradition  has  assigned 
to  him.  But  when  he  had  risen  to  speak,  he  only  re- 
peated— "little  children,  love  one  another."  Modern 
hearers  are  sometimes  tempted  to  envy  the  primitive 
Christians  of  the  Ephesian  Church,  if  for  nothing  else, 
yet  for  the  privilege  of  listening  to  the  shortest  sermon 
upon  record  in  the  annals  of  Christianity.  When 
Christian  preachers  have  behind  them  the  same  long 
series  of  virgin  years,  within  them  the  same  love  of 
Christ  and  knowledge  of  His  mysteries  ;  when  their 
very  presence  evinces  the  same  sad,  tender,  smiling, 
weeping,  all-embracing  sympathy  with  the  wants  and 
sorrows  of  humanity  ;  they  may  perhaps  venture  upon 
the  perilous  experiment  of  contracting  their  sermons 
within  the  same  span  as  St.  John's.  And  when  some, 
who  like  the  hearers  at  Ephesus,  are  not  prepared  for 

It  is  to  be  wished  that  the  R.  V.  had  either  kept  "  the  good  "  of 
the  A.  v.,  or  .adopted  the  word  "  Hving  " — the  translation  of  /Stos  ui 
Mark  xii.  44;  Luke  xxi.  4. 

13 


194  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

the  repetition  of  an  utterance  so  brief,  begin  to  ask — 
"  why  are  you  always  saying  this  ?  " — the  answer  may 
well  be  in  the  spirit  of  the  reply  which  the  aged  Apostle 
is  said  to  have  made — "  because  it  is  the  commandment 
of  the  Lord,  and  sufficient,  if  it  only  be  fulfilled  indeed." 

IV. 

This  passage  supplies  an  argument  (capable,  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  Introduction,  of  much  larger  expansion 
from  the  Epistle  as  a  whole)  against  mutilated  views, 
fragmentary  versions  of  the  Christian  life. 

There  are  four  such  views  which  are  widely  pre- 
valent at  the  present  time. 

(l)  The  first  of  these  is  emotionalism ;  which  makes 
the  entire  Christian  life  consist  in  a  series  or  bundle 
of  emotions.  Its  origin  is  the  desire  of  having  the 
feelings  touched,  partly  from  sheer  love  of  excitement ; 
partly  from  an  idea  that  if  and  when  we  have  worked 
up  certain  emotions  to  a  fixed  point  we  are  saved  and 
safe.  This  reliance  upon  feelings  is  in  the  last  analysis 
reliance  upon  self.  It  is  a  form  of  salvation  by  woiks; 
for  feelings  are  inward  actions.  It  is  an  unhappy 
anachronism  which  inverts  the  order  of  Scripture; 
which  substitutes  peace  and  grace  (the  com.pendious 
dogma  of  the  heresy  of  the  emotions)  for  givce  and 
peace,  the  only  order  known  to  St.  Paul  and  St.  John.^ 
The  only  spiritual  emotions  spoken  of  in  this  Epistle 
are  joy,  confidence,  assuring  our  hearts  before  Him":^ 
the  first  as  the  result  of  receiving  the  history  of  Jesus 
in  the  Gospel,  the  Incarnation,  and  the  blessed  com- 
munion with  God  and  the  Church  which  it  involves  ; 
the  second  as  tried  by  tests  of  a  most  practical  kind. 

»  2  John  3. 

«  I  John  i.  4,  ii.  28,  iii.  21,  iv.  17,  v.  14,  iii.  19. 


iii.  i6.i8.]  UNLESS  APPLIED.  195 

(2)  The  next  of  these  mutilated  views  of  the  Christian 
life  is  dodrmalism — which  makes  it  consist  of  a  series 
or  bundle  of  doctrines  apprehended  and  expressed  cor- 
rectly, at  least  according  to  certain  formulas,  generally 
of  a  narrow  and  unauthorised  character.  According  to 
this  view  the  question  to  be  answered  is — has  one  quite 
correctly  understood,  can  one  verbally  formulate  certain 
almost  scholastic  distinctions  in  the  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation ?  The  well-known  standard — "the  Bible  only" 
— must  be  reduced  by  the  excision  of  all  within  the 
Bible  except  the  writings  of  St,  Paul ;  and  even  in  this 
selected  portion  faith  must  be  entirely  guided  by  certain 
portions  more  selected  still,  so  that  the  question  finally 
may  be  reduced  to  this  shape — "am  I  a  great  deal 
sounder  than  St.  John  and  St.  James,  a  little  sounder 
than  an  unexpurgated  St.  Paul,  as  sound  as  a  carefully 
expurgated  edition  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  ? 

(3)  The  third  mutilated  view  of  the  Christian  life  is 
humanitarianism — which  makes  it  a  series  or  bundle 
of  philanthropic  actions. 

There  are  some  who  work  for  hospitals,  or  try  to 
bring  more  light  and  sweetness  into  crowded  dwelling- 
houses.  Their  lives  are  pure  and  noble.  But  the  one 
article  of  their  creed  is  humanity.  Altruism  is  their 
highest  duty.  Their  object,  so  far  as  they  have  any 
object  apart  from  the  supreme  rule  of  doing  right,  is 
to  lay  hold  on  subjective  immortality  by  living  on  in 
the  recollection  of  those  whom  they  have  helped,  whose 
existence  has  been  soothed  and  sweetened  by  their 
sympathy.  With  others  the  case  is  different.  Certain 
forms  of  this  busy  helpfulness — especially  in  the  laud- 
able provision  of  recreations  for  the  poor — are  an 
innocent  interlude  in  fashionable  hfe ;  sometimes,  alas  I 
a  kind  of  work  of  superercgatior,  to  atone  for  the  want 


196  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

of  devotion  or  of  purity — possibly  an  untheological 
survival  of  a  belief  in  justification  by  works. 

4.  A  third  fragmentary  view  of  the  Christian  life  is 
observationism,  which  makes  it  to  consist  in  a  bundle 
or  series  of  observances.  Frequent  services  and  com- 
munions, perhaps  with  exquisite  forms  and  in  beautifully 
decorated  churches,  have  their  dangers  as  well  as  their 
blessings.  However  closely  linked  these  observances 
may  be,  there  must  still  in  every  life  be  interstices 
between  them.  How  are  these  filled  up  ?  What  spirit 
within  connects  together,  vivifies  and  unifies,  this  series 
of  external  acts  of  devotion  ?  They  are  means  to  an 
end.  What  if  the  means  come  to  interpose  between 
us  and  the  end — just  as  a  great  political  thinker  has 
observed  that  with  legal  minds  the  forms  of  business 
frequently  overshadow  the  substance  of  business,  which 
is  their  end,  and  for  which  they  were  called  into  exist- 
ence. And  what  is  the  end  of  our  Christian  calling  ? 
A  life  pardoned  ;  in  process  of  purification  ;  growing  in 
faith,  in  love  of  God  and  man,  in  quiet  joyful  service. 
Certainly  a  "  rage  for  ceremonials  and  statistics,"  a 
long  list  of  observances,  does  not  infallibly  secure  such 
a  life,  though  it  may  often  be  not  alone  the  delighted 
and  continuous  expression,  but  the  constant  food  and 
support  of  such  a  life.  But  assuredly  if  men  trust  in 
any  of  these  things — in  their  emotions,  in  their  favourite 
formulas,  in  their  philanthropic  works,  in  their  religious 
observances — in  anything  but  Christ,  they  greatly  need 
to  go  back  to  the  simple  text,  "  His  name  shall  be  called 
Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  people  from  their  sins." 

Now,  as  we  have  said  above,  in  distinction  from  all 
these  fragmentary  views,  St.  John's  Epistle  is  a  survey 
of  the  completed  Christian  life,  founded  upon  his  Gospel. 
It  is  a  consummate  fruit  ripened  in  the  long  summers 


ui.i6-i8.]  UNLESS  APPLIED.  197 

of  his  experience.  It  is  not  a  treatise  upon  the  Christian 
affections,  nor  a  system  of  doctrine,  nor  an  essay  upon 
works  of  charity,  nor  a  companion  to  services. 

Yet  this  wonderful  Epistle  presupposes  at  least  much 
that  is  most  precious  of  all  these  elements,  (i)  It  is  far 
from  being  a  burst  of  emotionalism.  Yet  almost  at 
the  outset  it  speaks  of  an  emotion  as  being  the  natural 
result  of  rightly  received  objective  truth.*  St.  John 
recognises  feeling,  whether  of  supernatural  or  natural 
origin;^  but  he  recognises  it  with  a  certain  majestic 
reserve.  Once  only  does  he  seem  to  be  carried  away. 
In  a  passage  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made, 
after  stating  the  dogma  of  the  Incarnation,  he  suffuses 
it  with  a  wealth  of  emotional  colour.  It  is  Christmas 
in  his  soul ;  the  bells  ring  out  good  tidings  of  great  joy. 
"These  things  write  we  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may  be 
full."  (2)  This  Epistle  is  no  dogmatic  summary.  Yet 
combining  its  prooemium  with  the  other  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  we  have  the  most  perf'=?ct  statement  of  the 
dogma  of  the  Incarnation.  As  we  read  thoughtfully 
on,  dogma  after  dogma  stands  cut  in  relief.  The 
divinity  of  the  Word,  the  reaUty  of  His  manhood,  the 
effect  of  His  atonement,  His  intercession.  His  con- 
tinual presence,  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  His 
gifts  to  us,  the  relation  of  the  Spirit  to  Christ,  the 
Holy  Trinity — all  these  find  their  place  in  these  few 

'  I  John  i.  4. 

*  TO.  atrXdyx^o-  (ver.  1 7).  This  however  is  the  only  occurrence  of 
the  word  in  St.  John's  writings.  The  substantive  arr\dyx''a.  =  emolions, 
is  found  in  classical  poets.  But  the  verb  aTr\ayx''i^o/j.ai  occurs  only  in 
LXX.  and  New  Testament— and  thus,  like  dydwr],  is  almost  born  within 
the  circle  of  revealed  truth.  The  new  dispensation  so  rich  in  the 
mercy  of  God  (Luke  i.  78),  so  fruitful  in  mercy  from  man  to  man,  may 
well  claim  a  new  vocabulary  in  the  department  of  tenderness  and 
pity. 


igS  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

pages.  If  St.  John  is  no  mere  doctrinalist  he  is  yet 
the  greatest  theologian  the  Church  has  ever  seen. 
(3)  Once  more ;  if  the  Apostle's  Christianity  is  no  mere 
humanitarian  sentiment  to  encourage  the  cultivation 
of  miscellaneous  acts  of  good-nature,  yet  it  is  deeply 
pervaded  by  a  sense  of  the  integral  connection  of 
practical  love  of  man  with  the  love  of  God.  So  much 
is  this  the  case,  that  a  large  gathering  of  the  most 
emotional  of  modern  sects  is  said  to  have  gone  on  with 
a  Bible  reading  in  St.  John's  Epistle  until  they  came 
to  the  words — "  we  know  that  we  have  passed  from 
death  unto  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren."  The 
reader  immediately  closed  the  book,  pronouncing  with 
general  assent  the  verse  was  likely  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  children  of  God.  Still  St.  John  puts 
humanitarianism  in  its  right  place  as  a  result  of 
something  higher.  "This  commandment  have  we 
from  Him,  that  he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother 
also."  As  if  he  would  say — "  do  not  sever  the  law  of 
social  life  from  the  law  of  supernatural  life ;  do  not 
separate  the  human  fraternity  from  a  Divine  Father- 
hood." (4)  No  one  can  suppose  that  for  St.  John 
religion  was  a  mere  string  of  observances.  Indeed,  to 
some  his  Epistle  has  given  the  notion  of  a  man  living  in 
an  atmosphere  where  external  ordinances  and  ministries 
either  did  not  exist  at  all,  or  only  in  almost  impalpable 
forms.  Yet  in  that  wonderful  manual,  ''The  Imitation 
of  Christ,"  there  is  scarcely  the  faintest  trace  of  any  of 
these  external  things ;  while  no  one  could  possibly  argue 
that  the  author  was  ignorant  of,  or  lightly  esteemed,  the 
ordinances  and  sacraments  amongst  which  his  life  must 
have  been  spent.  Certainly  the  fourth  Gospel  is  deeply 
sacramental.  This  Epistle,  with  its  calm,  unhesitating 
conviction  of  the   sonship   of  all   to  whom  it   is  ad- 


iii.i6-i8.]  UNLESS  APPLIED.  199 

dressed ;  with  its  view  of  the  Christian  life  as  in  idea 
a  continuous  growth  from  a  birth  the  secret  of  whose 
origin  is  given  in  the  Gospel ;  with  its  expressive  hints 
of  sources  of  grace  and  power  and  of  a  continual  pre- 
sence of  Christ ;  with  its  deep  mystical  realisation  of 
the  double  flow  from  the  pierced  side  upon  the  cross, 
and  its  thrice-repeated  exchange  of  the  sacramental 
order  "  water  and  blood,"*  for  the  historical  order  "  blood 
and  water " ;  unquestionably  has  the  sacramental 
sense  diffused  throughout  it.  The  Sacraments  are  not 
in  obtrusive  prominence ;  yet  for  those  who  have  eyes 
to  see  they  lie  in  deep  and  tender  distances.  Such  is 
the  view  of  the  Christian  life  in  this  letter — a  life  in 
which  Christ's  truth  is  blended  with  Christ's  love ; 
assimilated  by  thought,  exhaling  in  worship,  softening 
into  sympathy  with  man's  suffering  and  sorrow.  It 
calls  for  the  believing  soul,  the  devout  heart,  the  help- 
ing hand.  It  is  the  perfect  balance  in  a  saintly  soul,  of 
feeling,  creed,  communion,  and  work. 

For  of  work  for  our  fellow  man  it  is  that  the  question 
is  asked  half  despairingly — "  whoso  hath  this  world's 
good,  and  seeth  "  (gazes  at)^  "his  brother  have  need, 
and  shutteth  up  his  heart  against  him,  how  doth  the 
love  of  God  ^  dwell  in  him."  Some  can  quietly  look  at 
the  poor  brother ;  they  see  him  in  need,  but  they  have 
not  the  thoughtful  eyes  that  see  his  need.  They  may 
belong  to  "  the  sluggard  Pity's  vision-weaving  tribe," 
who  expend  a  sigh  of  sentiment  upon  such  spectacles, 
and  nothing  more.  Or  they  may  be  hardened  pro- 
fessors  of  the  "dismal  science,"  who  have  learned  to 

'  I  John  V.  6,  conf.  John  xix.  34. 

*  Btwpri,  ver.  17. 

•  "  The  love  of  which  God  is  at  once  the  object,  and  the  author,  and 
the  pattern."  (Prof.  Westcott.) 


200  LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 

consider  a  sigh  as  the  luxury  of  ignorance  or  of  feeble- 
ness. But  for  all  practical  purposes  both  these  classes 
interpose  a  too  effectual  barrier  between  their  heart 
and  their  brother's  need.  But  true  Christians  are  made 
partakers  in  Christ  of  the  mystery  of  human  suffering. 
Even  when  they  are  not  actually  in  sight  of  brethren 
in  want,  their  ears  are  ever  hearing  the  ceaseless  moan- 
ing of  the  sea  ot  human  sorrow,  with  a  sympathy 
which  involves  its  own  measure  of  pain,  though  a  pain 
which  brings  with  it  abundant  compensation.  Their 
inner  life  has  not  merely  won  for  itself  the  partly 
selfish  satisfaction  of  personal  escape  from  punishment, 
great  as  that  blessing  may  be.  They  have  caught 
something  of  the  meaning  of  the  secret  of  all  love — 
"we  love  because  He  first  loved  us."^  In  those  words 
is  the  romance  (if  we  may  dare  to  call  it  so)  of  the 
divine  love-tale.  Under  its  influence  the  face  once 
hard  and  narrow  often  becomes  radiant  and  softened ; 
it  smiles,  or  is  tearful,  in  the  light  of  the  love  of  His 
face  who  first  loved. 

It  is  this  principle  of  St.  John  which  is  ever  at  work 
in  Christian  lands.  In  hospitals  it  tells  us  that  Christ 
is  ever  passing  down  the  wards  ;  that  He  will  have  no 
stinted  service ;  that  He  must  have  more  for  His  sick 
more  devotion,  a  gentler  touch,  a  finer  sympathy ;  that 
where  His  hand  has  broken  and  blessed,  every  particle 
is  a  sacred  thing,  and  must  be  treated  reverently. 

Are  there  any  who  are  tempted  to  think  that  our  text 
has  become  antiquated  ;  that  it  no  longer  holds  true 
in  the  light  of  organised  charity,  of  economic  science  ? 
Let  them  listen  to  one  who  speaks  with  the  weight  of 
years  of  active  benevolence,  and  with  consummate 
knowledge  of  its  method  and  duties.^  "  There  are  men 
'  I  John  iv.  19.  *  Lord  Meath. 


iu.i6-i8.  UNLESS  APPLIED.  201 

who,  in  their  detestation  of  roguery,  forget  that  by  a 
wholesale  condemnation  of  charitj',  they  run  the  risk 
of  driving  the  honest  to  despair  and  of  turning  them 
into  the  very  rogues  of  whom  they  desire  so  ardently 
to  be  quit.  These  men  are  unconsciously  playing  into 
the  hands  of  the  Socialists  and  the  Anarchists,  the  only 
sections  of  society  whose  distinct  interest  it  is  that 
misery  and  starvation  should  increase.  No  doubt 
indiscriminate  almsgiving  is  hurtful  to  the  State  as  well 
as  to  the  individual  who  receives  the  dole,  but  not  less 
dangerous  would  it  be  to  society  if  the  principles  of 
these  stern  political  economists  were  to  be  literally 
accepted  by  any  large  number  of  the  rich,  and  if 
charity  ceased  to  be  practised  within  the  land.  We 
cannot  yet  afford  to  shut  ourselves  up  in  the  castle 
of  philosophic  indifference,  regardless  of  the  fate  of 
those  who  have  the  misfortune  to  find  themselves 
outside  its  walls." 

NOTES. 
Ch.  iii.  12 — 21. 

Ver.  12.  A  second  reference  to  the  Book  of  Genesis  within 
a  few  lines  (see  ver.  8).  It  is  characteristic  of  the  historical 
spirit  of  St.  John  that  he  does  not  entangle  himself  with  the 
luxuriant  upgrowth  of  wild  fable  in  which  traditional  Judaism 
has  ever  enveloped  the  simple  narrative  of  Cain  and  Abel  in 
Genesis. 

Ver  15.  St.  John  may  refer  to  another  passage  in  Genesis. 
"  And  Esau  said  in  his  heart,  The  days  of  mourning  for  my 
father  are  at  hand  ;  then  will  I  slay  my  brother  Jacob  " 
(Gen.  xxvii,  11-41). 

Ver.  17,  A  Rabbinical  saying  is  worth  recording  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  spirit  in  which  the  "  living  of  this  world  "  should 
be  held.  "  He  that  saith,  Mine  is  thine,  and  thine  is  mine,  is 
an  idiot ;  he  that  saith.  Mine  is  mine,  and  thine  is  thine,  is 
moderate ;  he  that  saith,  Mine  is  thine,  and  thine  is  thine,  is 


LOFTY  IDEALS  PERILOUS 


charitable  ;  but  he  that  saith,  Thine  is  mine,  and  mine  is  mine, 
is  wicked  ;  even  though  it  be  only  saying  it  in  his  heart,  to 
wish  it  were  so."     Paulus  Fagius.    Sentent.  Heb. 

Vers.  19,  20,  21.  These  verses  probably  present  more  diffi- 
culties than  any  other  portion  of  this  Epistle,  (i)  For  their 
construction.  The  following  note  from  a.  fasciculus  (now  no 
longer  to  be  procured)  written  by  a  master  of  sacred  studies 
seems  to  us  to  say  all  that  can  be  said  for  a  rendering  different 
from  that  of  the  R.  V.  and  our  own. 

"  Ver.  20  :  on  ihv  KarayivuxTKr]  T]fj.a>v  f)  KnpSi'a,  oTt  fifi^Mv  etrrlu  6 
Gfo?.  The  difficulty  is  in  the  second  on,  which  is  ignored  by 
the  Vulgate  and  A.  V.  The  Revisers  (after  Hoogeveen,  De 
Pa7'tic.  p.  589,  ed.  Schiitz.  and  others)  point  o,ti  lav  in  the  first 
clause,  which  they  join  with  the  preceding  verse:  'and  shall 
assure  our  heart  before  him,  whereinsoever  our  heart  condemn 
us  ;  because  God  '  etc.  But  this  is  quite  inadmissible,  since 
nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  \av  KarayivMa-Kr]  (ver.  20)  and 
eav  fiT]  KarayivaiaKi]  (ver.  2i)  are  both  m  ;protasi,  and  in  strict 
correlation  with  each  other.  Dean  Alford  suggests  an  ellipsis 
(.1  the  verb  substantive  before  the  second  oVt,  and  would  trans- 
late :  '  Because  if  our  heart  condemn  us,  (it  is)  because  God ' 
etc.  He  instances  such  cases  as  eiTir  eV  Xptcrrw,  (he  is)  Kaivi] 
KTiais,  which  are  quite  dissimilar;  but  the  following  from 
St.  Chrysostom  (T.  X.  p.  122  B)  fully  bears  out  this  construc- 
tion ;  'O  ^vyos  f-iov  XPI^'^'^^  K.r.i.  el  8e  oijk  alcrdavr]  ttjs  Kov(f)c'>TriTos, 
'OTI  ■7Tpo6vfj.iav  eppa^ievTjv  ovk  f^ftr  ;  where  I  have  expunged  8?]\o* 
before  on  on  the  authority  of  three  out  of  four  MSS.  collated 
for  these  Homilies,  the  fourth,  with  the  old  Latin  version,  for 
OTt  TTpoGvfilau  reading  p.f]  davpda-rjs,  npodvplav  yap.  In  my  note 
on  that  place  I  have  pointed  out  that  the  ellipsis  is  not  of 
d^Xov,  but  of  TO  a'lnov,  causa  est,  quia.  So  in  the  present 
instance  we  might  translate :  '  For  if  our  heart  condemn  us, 
(tbe  reason  is)  because  God  is  greater,*  etc.,  were  it  not  for 
the  difficulty  of  explaining  how  the  fact  of  God's  being  greater 
than  cur  heart  can  be  a  valid  reason  for  our  heart  condemning 
us.  I  would,  therefore,  take  the  second  In  for  quod,  not  quia, 
and  suppose  an  ellipsis  of  b^Xov,  as  in  i  Tim.  vi.  7,  where  see 
note." — Otium  Norvicense,  by  Frederic  Field,  M.A.,  LL.D. 
(pp.  153,  15). 

Dr.  Field's  rendering  then  is  :  ".For  if  our  heart  condemn 
us,  (it  is  evident)  that  God  is  greater  than  our  heart." 


iii  16-18.]  UNLESS  APPLIED.  203 

(2)  For  the  meaning  of  these  verses.  All  interpretations 
appear  to  fall  into  two  classes ;  as  St.  John  is  supposed  to 
aim  at  {a)  soothing  conscience,  or  {b)  awakening  it.  But 
may  he  not  really  intend  to  leave  people  to  think  over  a 
something  which  he  has  purposely  omitted,  and  to  apply  it 
as  required  ?  The  saying  "  God  is  greater  than  our  hearts, 
and  knoweth  all  things,"  probably  cuts  two  ways.  If  my 
heart  condemn  me  justly,  and  with  truth,  much  more  so 
does  God  who  is  greater  than  my  heart.  But,  if  my  con- 
science is  tenderly  sensitive,  scrupulous  because  full  of  love, 
God's  knowledge  of  my  heart  tells  in  this  case  on  the 
brighter  side,  as  truly  as  in  the  other  case  it  told  on  the 
darker  side.  We  may  lull  our  heart.  "A  tranquil  God 
tranquillises  all  things,  and  to  see  His  peacefulness  is  to  be 
at  peace."    {^Si.  Bernard  in  Cant.) 


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206  NOTES. 

NOTES. 
Ch.  iv.  I,  7. 

Ver.  I.  Believe  not  any  s^t'ni']  fi.fj  navrl  irvevfian  irttrTtvert. 
The  different  constructions  of  iricrrfveiv  in  St.  John  must  be 
carefully  noted,  {a)  With  dative  as  here — "  believe  not  such 
an  one;  "  take  him  not  upon  trust,  at  his  own  word  ;  credit 
him  not  with  veracity.  So  in  the  Gospel,  our  Lord  continually 
complains  that  the  Jews  did  not  even  believe  Him  on  His 
word — strong  and  clear  as  that  word  was  with  all  the  freshness 
of  Heaven,  and  all  the  transparency  of  truth.  John  v.  38, 
46,  viii.  45,  46,  X.  n. 

{b)  inaTfiieiv  ets^to  make  an  act  of  faith  in,  to  repose  in  as 
divine.     John  iii.  36,  iv.  39,  vi.  35,  xi.  25  ;   i  John  v.  10. 

(c)  With  an  accusative=\.o  be  persuaded  of  the  thing — to 
believe  it  with  an  implied  conviction  of  permanence  in  the 
persuasion — as  in  the  beautiful  verse  (iv.  16) — "  we  are  fully 
persuaded  of  the  love  of  God,"  we  make  it  the  creed  of  our 
heart.     TrcTrtorcvica/ici'  Tr\v  aya.in\v. 


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DISCOURSE  X. 

BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

"  Herein  is  our  love  made  perfect,  that  we  may  have  boldness  in 
the  Day  of  Judgment :  because  as  He  is,  so  are  we  in  this  world." — 
1  John  iv.  17. 

IT  has  been  so  often  repeated  that  St.  John's 
eschatology  is  idealized  and  spiritual,  that  people 
now  seldom  pause  to  ask  what  is  meant  by  the  words. 
Those  who  repeat  them  most  frequently  seem  to  think 
that  the  idealized  means  that  which  will  never  come 
into  the  region  of  historical  fact,  and  that  the  spiritual 
is  best  defined  as  the  unreal.  Yet,  without  postulating 
the  Johannic  authorship  of  the  Apocalypse — where  the 
Judgment  is  described  with  the  most  awful  accompani- 
ments of  outward  solemnity^ — there  are  two  places  in 
this  Epistle  which  are  allowed  to  drop  out  of  view,  but 
which  bring  us  face  to  face  with  the  visible  manifesta- 
tions of  an  external  Advent.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of 
St.  John's  style  (as  we  have  frequently  seen)  to  strike 
some  chord  of  thought,  so  to  speak,  before  its  time; 
to  allow  the  prelusive  note  to  float  away,  until  suddenly, 
after  a  time,  it  surprises  us  by  coming  back  again  with 
a  fuller  and  bolder  resonance.  "  And  now,  my  sons,"* 
(had  the  Apostle  said)  "abide  in  Him,  that  if  He  shall 
be  manifested,  we  may  have  confidence,  and  not  be 

'  Apoc.  XX.  12,  13.  *  I  John  ii.  28. 


iv.i7.]    BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT.        an 

ashamed  shrinking  from  Him  ^  at  His  coming."  ^  In 
our  text  the  same  thought  is  resumed,  and  the  reality 
of  the  Coming  and  Judgment  in  its  external  manifesta- 
tion as  emphatically  given  as  in  any  other  part  of  the 
New  Testament.^ 

We  may  here  speak  of  the  conception  of  the  Day  of 
the  Judgment :  of  the  fear  with  which  that  conception 
is  encompassed ;  and  of  the  sole  means  of  the  removal 
of  that  fear  which  St.  John  recognises. 

L 

We  examine  the  general  conception  of  "the  Day  of 
the  Judgment,"  as  given  in  the  New  Testament. 

As  there  is  that  which  with  terrible  emphasis  is 
marked  off  as  ^* the  Judgment,"*  ^^ the  Parousia,"  so 
there  are  other  judgments  or  advents  of  a  preparatory 
character.  As  there  are  phenomena  known  as  mock 
suns,  or  haloes  round  the  moon,  so  there  are  fainter 
reflections    ringed    round  the  Advent,  the   Judgment.* 

*  atVxw^w/xei'  dn-'  airov,  see  Jerem.  xii.  13  (for  JD  tJ"I3).  Prof. 
Westcott  happily  quotes,  "as  a  guilty  thing  surprised." 

*  Coming,  ev  rrj  vapovcria  ai/rov.  The  word  is  not  found  else- 
where in  the  Johannic  group  of  writings.  But  by  his  use  of  it  here, 
St.  John  falls  into  line  with  the  whole  array  of  apostolic  witnesses — • 
with  St.  Matthew  (xxiv.  3-27,  37,  39) ;  with  St.  Paul  (passim) ;  with 
St.  James  (v.  7,  8);  with  St.  Peter  (2  Peter  i.  16,  iii.  4-12).  This 
fact  may  well  warn  critics  of  the  precarious  character  of  theories 
founded  upon  "  the  negative  phenomena  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament."  (See  Professor  Westcott's  excellent  note,  The  Epistles 
0/ Si.  John,  80.) 

*  (if   ry   Vfi^pg,   TTJi   Kpiaeus) — "in    the   Day  of  the   Judgment" — 
cf.  Apoc.  xiv.  7.     We  have  "in  the  Judgment"  (Matt.  xii.  41,  42 
Luke  X,  14,  xi,  31,  32) — the  indefinite  "day  of  judgment"  (Matt.  z. 
15,  xi.  22,  24;  Mark  vi.  II). 

*  2  Pet.  ii.  9,  iii.  7 — but  "  The  Day  of  The  Judgment,"  here  only. 

*  Cf.  our  Lord's  words — "henceforth  (dw'  ifiri)  ye  shall  see  the  Son 
of  Man  coming."     Matt.  xxvi.  64.) 


212  BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

Thus,  in  the  development  of  history,  there  are  suc- 
cessive cycles  of  continuing  judgment ;  preparator}/ 
advents ;  less  completed  crises^  as  even  the  world  calls 
them. 

But  against  one  somewhat  widely-spread  way  of 
blotting  the  Day  of  the  Judgment  from  the  calendar 
of  the  future — so  far  as  believers  are  concerned — 
we  should  be  on  our  guard.  Some  good  men  think 
themselves  entitled  to  reason  thus — "  I  am  a  Christian. 
I  shall  be  an  assessor  in  the  judgment.  For  me  there 
is,  therefore,  no  judgment  day."  And  it  is  even  held 
out  as  an  inducement  to  others  to  close  with  this  con- 
clusion, that  they  "  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bugbear 
of  judgment." 

The  origin  of  this  notion  seems  to  be  in  certain 
universal  tendencies  of  modern  religious  thought. 

The  idolatry  of  the  immediate — the  prompt  creation 
of  effect — is  the  perpetual  snare  of  revivalism.  Revi- 
valism is  thence  fatally  bound  at  once  to  follow  the  tide 
of  emotion,  and  to  increase  the  volume  of  the  waters 
by  which  it  is  swept  along.  But  the  religious  emotion 
of  this  generation  has  one  characteristic  by  which  it 
is  distinguished  from  that  of  previous  centuries.  The 
revivalism  of  the  past  in  all  Churches  rode  upon  the 
dark  waves  of  fear.  It  worked  upon  human  nature  by 
exaggerated  material  descriptions  of  hell,  by  solemn 
appeals  to  the  throne  of  Judgment.  Certain  schools 
of  biblical  criticism  have  enabled  men  to  steel  them- 
selves against  this  form  of  preaching.  An  age  of  soft 
humanitarian  sentiment — superficial,  and  inclined  to 
forget  that  perfect  Goodness  may  be  a  very  real  cause 
of  fear — must  be  stirred  by  emotions  of  a  different  kind. 
The  infinite  sweetness  of  our  Father's  heart — the  con- 
clusions, illogically  but  effectively  drawn  from  this,  of 


iv.  i;.]      BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT.      213 

an  Infinite  good-nature,  with  its  easy-going  pardon, 
reconciliation  all  round,  and  exemption  from  all  that 
is  unpleasant — these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  only 
available  materials  for  creating  a  great  volume  of 
emotion.  An  invertebrate  creed ;  punishment  either 
annihilated  or  mitigated  ;  judgment,  changed  from  a 
sol'^mn  and  universal  assize,  a  bar  at  which  every 
soul  must  stand,  to  a  splendid,  and — for  all  who  can  say 
I  am  saved — a  triumphant  pageant  in  which  they  have 
no  anxious  concern ;  these  are  the  readiest  instruments, 
the  most  powerful  leverage,  with  which  to  work  exten- 
sively upon  masses  of  men  at  the  present  time.  And 
the  seventh  article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  must  pass 
into  the  limbo  of  exploded  superstition. 

The  only  appeal  to  Scripture  which  such  persons 
make,  with  any  show  of  plausibility,  is  contained  in  an 
exposition  of  our  Lord's  teaching  in  a  part  of  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  fourth  Gospel.^  But  clearly  there  are 
three  Resurrection  scenes  which  may  be  discriminated 
in  those  words.  The  first  is  spiritual,  a  present 
awakening  of  dead  souls,^  in  those  with  whom  the 
Son  of  Man  is  brought  into  contact  in  His  earthly 
ministry.  The  second  is  a  department  of  the  same 
spiiicuai  Resurrection.  The  Son  of  God,  with  that 
mysterious  gift  of  Life  in  Himself,^  has  within  Him  a 
perpetual  spring  of  rejuvenescence  for  a  faded  and  dying 
world.  A  renewal  of  hearts  is  in  process  during  all 
the  days  of  time,  a  passage  for  soul  after  soul  out  of 
death  into  life.*  The  third  scene  is  the  general  Resur- 
rection and  general  Judgment.*  The  first  was  the 
resurrection  of  comparatively  few ;  the  second  of  many 


•  John  V.  21,  29.  *  Ver.  21.  *  Ver.  26. 

*  Ver.  24,  *  •  Ver.  28,  29. 


214  BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

the  third  of  all.  If  it  is  said  that  the  believer  "  cometh 
not  into  judgment^^  the  word  in  that  place  plainly 
signifies  condemnation} 

Clear  and  plain  above  all  such  subtleties  ring  out  the 
awe-inspiring  wojds :  "  it  is  appointed  unto  men  once 
to  die,  but  after  this  the  Judgment ; "  "  we  must  all 
appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ."* 

Reason  supplies  us  with  two  great  arguments  for  the 
General  Judgment.  One  from  the  conscience  of  history, 
so  to  speak ;  the  other  from  the  individual  conscience. 

I.  General  history  points  to  a  general  judgment. 
If  there  is  no  such  judgment  to  come,  then  there  is 
no  one  definite  moral  purpose  in  human  society. 
Progress  would  be  a  melancholy  word,  a  deceptive 
appearance,  a  stream  that  has  no  issue,  a  road  that 
leads  nowhere.  No  one  who  believes  that  there  is  a 
Personal  God,  Who  guides  the  course  of  human  affairs, 
can  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  generations  of  man 
are  to  go  on  for  ever  without  a  winding-up,  which  shall 
decide  upon  the  doings  of  all  who  take  part  in  human 
life.  In  the  philosophy  of  nature,  the  affirmation  or 
denial  of  purpose  is  the  affirmation  or  denial  of  God. 
So  in  the  philosophy  of  history.     Society  without  the 

'  The  writer  ventures  to  lament  the  substitution  of  "judgment* 
for  "condemnation,"  ver.  24.  R.V.  It  is  a  verbal  consistency,  or 
minute  accuracy,  purchased  at  the  heavy  price  of  a  false  thought, 
suggested  to  many  readers  who  are  not  scholars.  "In  John's 
language  Kpi(st.%  is,  (a)  that  judgment  which  came  in  pain  and  misery 
to  those  who  rejected  the  salvation  offered  to  mankind  by  Christ, 
iii.  I9i  K.r.X.,  IpxiaOai.  e/i  Kpi<nv,  to  fall  into  the  state  of  one  thus 
condemned,  v.  24.  (6)  Judgment  of  condemnation  to  the  wicked, 
with  ensuing  rejection,  v.  29."  Grimm.  Lex.  N.T.  247.  Between 
this  passage  of  the  fourth  Gospel  and  Apoc.  xx.,  there  is  a  marvellous 
inner  harmony  of  thought.  "The  first  resurrection"  (vcr.  6)" 
John  v.  21,  26;  then  vv.  II,  12,.  13  =  John  v.  28,  29. 
*  Heb.  IK.  27  ;  2  Cor.  v.  10,  cf.  Rom.  xiv.  10;  Apoc.  xx.  II,  I2,  13. 


IV.  17.]     BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT.      21$ 

General  Judgment  would  be  a  chaos  of  random  facts, 
a  thing  without  rational  retrospect  or  definite  end — i.e., 
without  God.  If  man  is  under  the  government  of  God, 
human  history  is  a  drama,  long-drawn,  and  of  infinite 
variety,  with  inconceivably  numerous  actors.  But  a 
drama  must  have  a  last  act.  The  last  act  of  the  drama 
of  history  is  "  The  Day  of  the  Judgment." 

2.  The  other  argument  is  derived  from  the  individual 
conscience. 

Conscience,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has  two  voices. 
One  is  imperative  ;  it  tells  us  what  we  are  to  do.  One 
is  prophetic,  and  warns  us  of  something  which  we  are 
to  receive.  If  there  is  to  be  no  Day  of  the  General 
Judgment,  then  the  million  prophecies  of  conscience 
will  be  belied,  and  our  nature  prove  to  be  mendacious 
to  its  very  roots. 

There  is  no  essential  article  of  the  Christian  creed 
like  this  which  can  be  isolated  from  the  rest,  and  treated 
as  if  it  stood  alone.  There  is  a  solidarity  of  each  with  all 
the  rest.  Any  which  is  isolated  is  in  danger  itself,  and 
leaves  the  others  exposed.  For  they  have  an  internal 
harmony  and  congruity.  They  do  not  form  a  hotch- 
pot of  credenda.  They  are  not  so  many  beliefs  but 
one  belief.  Thus  the  isolation  of  articles  is  perilous. 
For,  when  we  try  to  grasp  and  to  defend  one  of 
them,  we  have  no  means  left  of  measuring  it  but  by 
terms  of  comparison  which  are  drawn  from  ourselves, 
which  must  therefore  be  finite,  and  by  the  inadequacy 
of  the  scale  which  they  present,  appear  to  render  the 
article  of  faith  thus  detached  incredible.  Moreover, 
each  article  of  our  creed  is  a  revelation  of  the  Divine 
attributes,  which  meet  together  in  unity.  To  divide 
the  attributes  by  dividing  the  form  in  which  they  are 
revealed  to  us,  is  to  belie  and  falsify  the  attribute ;  to 


ai6  BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

give  a  monstrous  development  to  one  by  not  taking 
into  account  some  other  which  is  its  balance  and  com- 
pensation. Thus,  many  men  deny  the  truth  of  a 
punishment  which  involves  final  separation  from  God. 
They  glory  in  the  legal  judgment  which  "dismisses  hell 
with  costs."  But  they  do  so  by  fixing  their  attention 
exclusively  upon  the  one  dogma  which  reveals  one 
attribute  of  God.  They  isolate  it  from  the  Fall,  from 
the  Redemption  by  Christ,  from  the  gravity  of  sin,  from 
the  truth  that  all  whom  the  message  of  the  Gospel 
reaches  may  avoid  the  penal  consequences  of  sin.  It 
is  impossible  to  face  the  dogma  of  eternal  separation 
from  God  without  facing  the  dogma  of  Redemption. 
For  Redemption  involves  in  its  very  idea  the  intensity 
of  sin,  which  needed  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God ; 
and  further,  the  fact  that  the  offer  of  salvation  is  so 
free  and  wide  that  it  cannot  be  put  away  without  a 
terrible  wilfulness. 

In  dealing  with  many  of  the  articles  of  the  creed, 
there  are  opposite  extremes.  Exaggeration  leads  to  a 
revenge  upon  them  which  is,  perhaps,  more  perilous 
than  neglect.  Thus,  as  regards  eternal  punishment,  in 
one  country  ghastly  exaggerations  were  prevalent.  It 
was  assumed  that  the  vast  majority  of  mankind  "are 
destined  to  everlasting  punishment "  ;  that  "  the  floor  of 
hell  is  crawled  over  by  hosts  of  babies  a  span  long." 
The  inconsistency  of  such  views  with  the  love  of  God, 
and  with  the  best  instincts  of  man,  was  victoriously  and 
passionately  demonstrated.  Then  unbelief  turned  upon 
the  dogma  itself,  and  argued,  with  wide  acceptance, 
that  "  with  the  overthrow  of  this  conception  goes  the 
whole  redemption-plan,  the  Incarnation,  the  Atonement, 
the  Resurrection,  and  the  grand  climax  of  the  Church- 
scheme,  the  General  Judgment."     But  the  alleged  article 


iv.  17.]     BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT.      217 

of  faith  was  simply  an  exaggeration  of  that  faith,  and 
the  objections  lay  altogether  against  the  exaggeration 
of  it 

II. 

We  have  now  to  speak  of  the  removal  of  that  terror 
which  accompanies  the  conception  of  the  Day  of  the 
Judgment,  and  of  the  sole  means  of  that  emancipation 
which  St.  John  recognises.  For  terror  there  is  in  every 
point  of  the  repeated  descriptions  of  Scripture — in  the 
surroundings,  in  the  summons,  in  the  tribunal,  in  the 
trial,  in  one  of  the  two  sentences. 

"  God  is  love,"  writes  St.  John,  "  and  he  that  abideth 
in  love  abideth  in  God  :  and  God  abideth  in  him.  In 
this  [abiding],  love  stands  perfected  with  us^  and  the 
object  is  nothing  less  than  this,"  not  that  we  may  be 
exempted  from  judgment,  but  that  "  we  may  have  bold- 
ness in  the  Day  of  the  Judgment."  Boldness  !  It  is  the 
splendid  word  which  denotes  the  citizen's  right  of  free 
speech,  the  masculine  privilege  of  courageous  liberty.^ 
It  is  the  tender  word  which  expresses  the  child's 
unhesitating  confidence,  in  "  saying  all  out "  to  the 
parent.  The  ground  of  the  boldness  is  conformity  to 
Christ.  Because  "as  He  /s,"  with  that  vivid  idealizmg 
sense,  frequent  in  St.  John  when  he  uses  it  of  our 
Lord — ''as  He  is,"  delineated  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  seen 


'•/ite^'  i;mwj' — God's  love  in  itself  is  perfected.  It  might  be  made  as 
perfect  as  man's  nature  will  admit  by  an  instantaneous  act;  but  God 
works  jointly,  in  companionsliip  with  us.  The  grace  of  God  "pre- 
venting us  that  we  may  will,  works  with  us  when  we  will."  The 
essential  idea  of  ;u,eTd  is  companionship  or  connexion.  (See  Donaldson, 
Gr.  Gr.,  50,  52  a.) 

^  iXevOepias  i)  iroXis  fitaTT]  Kai  irapprjfflai  yiyverat.  (Plat.,  Rep.,  557  B). 
The  word  is  derived  from  Trai'  and  prjats. 


2i8  BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

by  "  the  eye  of  the  heart "  ^  with  constant  reverence  in 
the  soul,  with  adoring  wonder  in  heaven,  perfectly  true, 
pure,  and  righteous — "  even  so  "  (not,  of  course,-  with 
any  equality  in  degree  to  that  consummate  ideal,  but 
with  a  likeness  ever  growing,  an  aspiration  ever 
advancing^) — "so  are  we  in  this  world,"  purifying 
ourselves  as  He  is  pure. 

Let  us  draw  to  a  definite  point  our  considerations 
upon  the  Judgment,  and  the  Apostle's  sweet  encourage- 
ment for  the  "day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day." 

It  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Christian  faith  to  believe 
that  the  Son  of  God,  in  the  Human  Nature  which  He 
assumed,  and  which  He  has  borne  into  heaven,  shall 
come  again,  and  gather  all  before  Him,  and  pass 
sentence  of  condemnation  or  of  peace  according  to  their 
works.  To  hold  this  is  necessary  to  prevent  terrible 
doubts  of  the  very  existence  of  God  ;  to  guard  us  against 
sin,  in  view  of  that  solemn  account ;  to  comfort  us  under 
sfiliction. 

What  a  thought  for  us,  if  we  would  but  meditate 
upon  it  I  Often  we  complain  of  a  commonplace  life,  of 
mean  and  petty  employment.  How  can  it  be  so,  when 
at  the  end  we,  and  those  with  whom  we  live,  must 
look  upon  that  great,  overwhelming  sight !  Not  an 
eye  that  shall  not  see  Him,  not  a  knee  that  shall  not 
bow,  not  an  ear  that  shall  not  hear  the  sentence.  The 
heart  might  sink  and  the  imagination  quail  under  the 
burden  of  the  supernatural  existence  which  we  cannot 
escape.  One  of  two  looks  we  must  turn  upon  the 
Crucified — one  willing  as  that  which  we  cast  on  some 
glorious  picture,  on  the  enchantment  of  the  sky ;  the 
other  unwilling  and  abject.     We  should  weep  first  with 

'  Ephes.  i   i8.  »  Cf.  Matt  v.  48. 


iv.  17.]      BOLDNESS  IN  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT,     219 

Zechariah's  mourners,  with  tears  at  once  bitter  because 
they  are  for  sin,  and  sweet  because  they  are  for  Christ. 

But,  above  all  things,  let  us  hear  how  St.  John  sings 
us  the  sweet  low  hymn  that  breathes  consolation 
through  the  terrible  fall  of  the  triple  hammer-stroke  of 
the  rhyme  in  the  Dies  irce.  We  must  seek  to  lead  upon 
earth  a  life  laid  on  the  lines  of  Christ's.  Then,  when  the 
Day  of  the  Judgment  comes ;  when  the  cross  of  fire  (so, 
at  least,  the  early  Christians  thought)  shall  stand  in 
the  black  vault ;  when  the  sacred  wounds  of  Him  who 
was  pierced  shall  stream  over  with  a  light  beyond 
dawn  or  sunset ;  we  shall  find  that  the  discipline  of 
life  is  complete,  that  God's  love  after  all  its  long  work- 
ing with  us  stands  perfected,  so  that  we  shall  be  able, 
as  citizens  of  the  kingdom,  as  children  of  the  Father, 
to  say  out  all.  A  Christlike  character  in  an  un- 
Christlike  world — this  is  the  cure  of  the  disease  of 
terror.  Any  other  is  but  the  medicine  of  a  quack. 
"  There  is  no  fear  in  love ;  but  the  perfect  love  casteth 
out  fear,  because  fear  brings  punishment ;  and  he  that 
feareth  is  not  made  perfect  in  love."  ^ 

We  may  well  close  with  that  pregnant  commentary 
on  this  verse  which  tells  us  of  the  four  possible  con- 
ditions of  a  human  soul — "  without  either  fear  or  love  ; 
with  fear,  without  love  ;  with  fear  and  love ;  with  love, 
without  fear."  * 

NOTES. 
Ch.  iv.  7,  V.  3. 
Ver.  3.    This  verse  should  divide  about  the  middle. 

•  Ver.  18. 

*  Bengel.  The  writer  must  acknowledge  his  obligation  to  Pro- 
fessor Westcott,  whose  exposition  gives  us  a  peculiar  conception  of 
the  depth  of  St  John's  teaching  here.  {Jhe  Epistles  of  St.  John, 
149-153). 


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DISCOURSE  XI. 

3IRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

"And  His  commandments  are  not  grievous.  For  whatsoever  is 
born  of  God  overcomcth  the  world  :  and  this  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh  the  world,  even  our  faith.  Who  is  he  that  overcometh  the 
world,  but  he  that  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  ? " — 
I  John  v.  3,  4,  5. 

ST.  JOHN  here  connects  the  Christian  Birth  with 
Victory.  He  tells  us  that  of  the  supernatural  life 
the  destined  and  (so  to  speak)  natural  end  is  conquest. 
Now  in  this  there  is  a  contrast  between  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  law  of  grace.  No  doubt  the  first  is 
marvellous.  It  may  even,  if  we  will,  in  one  sense  be 
termed  a  victory  ;  for  it  is  the  proof  of  a  successful 
contest  with  the  blind  fatalities  of  natural  environment. 
It  is  in  itself  the  conquest  of  a  something  which 
has  conquered  a  world  below  it.  The  first  faint  cry 
of  the  baby  is  a  wail  no  doubt ;  but  in  its  very  utterance 
there  is  a  half  triumphant  undertone.  Boyhood,  youth, 
opening  manhood — at  least  in  those  who  are  physically 
and  intellectually  gifted — generally  possess  some  share 
of  "  the  rapture  of  the  strife "  with  nature  and  with 
their  contemporaries. 

"  Youth  hath  triumphal  mornings ;  its  days  bound 
From  night  as  from  a  victory." 

But  sooner  or  later  that  which  pessimists  style  "  the 
martyrdom  of  life"  sets  in.      However   brightly  the 


224  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

drama  opens,  the  last  scene  is  always  tragic.  Our 
natural  birth  inevitably  ends  in  defeat. 

A  birth  and  a  defeat  is  thus  the  epitome  of  each  life 
which  is  naturally  brought  into  the  field  of  our  present 
human  existence.  The  defeat  is  sighed  over,  some- 
times consummated,  in  every  cradle ;  it  is  attested  by 
every  grave. 

But  if  birth  and  defeat  is  the  motto  of  the  natural 
life,  Birth  and  victory  is  the  motto  of  every  one 
born  into  the  city  of  God. 

This  victory  is  spoken  of  in  our  verses  as  a  victory 
along  the  whole  line.  It  is  the  conquest  of  the  collective 
Church,  of  the  whole  mass  of  regenerate  humanity,  so 
far  as  it  has  been  true  to  the  principle  of  its  birth* — 
the  conquest  of  the  Faith  which  is  "The  Faith  of  ms,"* 
vi^ho  are  knit  together  in  one  communion  and  fellowship 
in  the  mystical  body  of  the  Son  of  God,  Christ  our  Lord. 
But  it  is  something  more  than  that.  The  general  vic- 
tory is  also  a  victory  in  detail.  Every  true  individual 
believer  shares  in  it.^  The  battle  is  a  battle  of  soldiers. 
The  abstract  ideal  victory  is  realised  and  made  concrete 
in  each  life  of  struggle  which  is  a  life  of  enduring  faith. 
The  triumph  is  not  merely  one  of  a  school,  or  of  a 
party.  The  question  rings  with  a  triumphant  challenge 
down  the  ranks — "  who  is  the  ever-conqueror  of  the 
world,  but  the  ever-believer  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
God?" 

We  are  thus  brought  to  two  of  St.  John's  great 
master-conceptions,  both  of  which  came  to  him  from 
hearing  the  Lord  who  is  the  Life — both  of  which  are 

•  This  is  expressed,  after  St.  John's  fashion,  by  the  neuter,  tcod  ri 
')iey€vv7]iJ.ivov  iK  ToD  GeoO.     ver.  4. 

^  7)  iricTTK  r]fiQv,  ver.  4. 

•  i  viKwv  rbv  KoafjLov,  6  iriffrevuv,  ver.  5* 


V.3-S.]  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  225 

to  be  read  in  connection  with  the  fourth  Gospel — the 
Christian's  Birth  and  his  victory. 

I. 

The  Apostle  introduces  the  idea  of  the  Birth  which 
has  its  origin  from  God  precisely  by  the  same  process 
to  which  attention  has  already  been  more  than  once 
directed. 

St.  John  frequently  mentions  some  great  subject ;  at 
first  like  a  musician  who  with  perfect  command  of  his 
instrument,  touches  what  seems  to  be  an  almost  random 
key,  faintly,  as  if  incidentally  and  half  wandering  from 
his  theme.  But  just  as  the  sound  appears  to  be 
absorbed  by  the  purpose  of  the  composition,  or  all  but 
lost  in  the  distance,  the  same  chord  is  struck  again 
more  decidedly ;  and  then,  after  more  or  less  interval, 
is  brought  out  with  a  music  so  full  and  sonorous,  that 
we  perceive  that  it  has  been  one  of  the  master's  lead- 
ing ideas  from  the  very  first.  So,  when  the  subject 
is  first  spoken  of,  we  hear — "  every  one  that  doeth 
righteousness  is  born  of  Him."  ^  The  subject  is  sus- 
pended for  a  while ;  then  comes  a  somewhat  more 
marked  reference.  "  Whosoever  is  born  of  God  is 
not  a  doer  of  sin  ;  and  he  cannot  continue  sinning, 
because  of  God  he  is  born."  There  is  yet  one  more 
tender  recurrence  to  the  favourite  theme — "  every  one 
that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  ^  Then,  finally  here  at 
last  the  chord,  so  often  struck,  grown  bolder  since  the 
prelude,  gathers  all  the  music  round  it.  It  interweaves 
with  itself  another  strain  which  has  similarly  been 
gaining  amplitude  of  volume  in  its  course,  until  we 
have  a  great   Te  Deum,  dominated  by  two  chords  of 

•  I  John  ii.  29.  •  I  John  iv.  7. 

IS 


226  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

Birth  and  Victory.  "This  is  the  conquest  that  has 
cotiqttcred  the  world — the  Faith  which  is  of  us." 

We  shall  never  come  to  any  adequate  notion  of  St. 
John's  conception  of  the  Birth  of  God,  without  tracing 
the  place  in  his  Gospel  to  which  his  asterisk  in  this  place 
refers.  To  one  passage  only  can  we  turn — our  Lord's 
conversation  with  Nicodemus.  "  Except  a  man  be  born 
again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God — except  a  man 
be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God."  *  The  germ  of  the  idea  of  entrance 
into  the  city,  the  kingdom  of  God,  by  means  of  a  new 
birth,  is  in  that  storehouse  of  theological  conceptions,  the 
psalter.  There  is  one  psalm  of  a  Korahite  seer,  enigmat- 
ical it  may  be,  shadowed  with  the  darkness  of  a  divine 
compression,^  obscure  from  the  glory  that  rings  it  round, 
and  from  the  gush  of  joy  in  its  few  and  broken  words. 
The  87th  Psalm  is  the  psalm  of  the  font,  the  hymn  of 
regeneration.  The  nations  once  of  the  world  are  men- 
tioned among  them  that  know  the  Lord.  They  are 
counted  when  He  writeth  up  the  peoples.  Glorious 
things  are  spoken  of  the  City  of  God.  Three  times 
over  the  burden  of  the  song  is  the  new  birth  by  which 
the  aliens  were  made  free  of  Sion. 

This  one  was  born  there, 

This  one  and  that  one  was  born  in  her, 

This  one  was  born  there.^ 

All  joyous  life  is  thus  brought  into  the  city  of  the 
new-born.     "  The  singers,  the  solemn  dances,  the  fresh 

•  John  iii.  5. 

•  OtpiSpa  abnynaTU)8r)s  #cai  tr/coreiviZj  elprj/x^vos.     Eus«h, 

•  D^n^'  nj.      Ver.  4. 
rlj-n^^  t'''N\  t:'\X.      Ver.  5. 

D^-l'?\  nj.      Ver.  6.     Psalm  IxxxviL 


V.3-5-]  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  227 

and  glancing  springs,  are  in  thee."*  Hence,  from  the 
notification  of  men  being  born  again  in  order  to  see  and 
enter  into  the  kingdom,  our  Lord,  as  if  in  surprise, 
meets  the  Pharisee's  question — '*  how  can  these  things 
be  ?  " — with  another — "  art  thou  that  teacher  in  Israel, 
and  understandest  not  these  things  ?  "  Jesus  tells  His 
Church  for  ever  that  every  one  of  His  disciples  must 
be  brought  into  contact  with  two  worlds,  with  two  in- 
fluences— one  outward,  the  other  inward  ;  one  material, 
the  other  spiritual;  one  earthly,  the  other  heavenly; 
one  visible  and  sacramental,  the  other  invisible  and 
divine.     Out  of  these  he  must  come  forth  new-born. 

Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  "the  water"  here 
coupled  with  the  Spirit  is  figurative.  But  let  it  be 
observed  first,  that  from  the  very  constitution  of  St. 
John's  intellectual  and  moral  being  things  outward  and 
visible  were  not  annihilated  by  the  spiritual  transpar- 
ency which  he  imparted  to  them.  Water,  literal  water, 
is  everywhere  in  his  writings.  In  his  Gospel  more 
especially  he  seems  to  be  ever  seeing,  ever  hearing  it. 
He  loved  it  from  the  associations  of  his  own  early  life, 
and  from  the  micntion  made  of  it  by  his  Master.  And 
as  in  the  Gospel  water  is,  so  to  speak,  one  of  the  three 
great  factors  and  centres  of  the  book  ;  ^  so  now  in  the 
Epistle,  it  still  seems  to  glance  and  murmur  before 
him.       "  The    water "    is   one   of    the    three    abiding 

*  "Both  they  who  sing  and  they  who  dance, 
With  sacred  song  are  there ; 
In  thee  fi  cih  brooks  and  soft  streams  glance, 
And  all  my  fountains  clear." 

Milton,  Paraphrase  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  7. 

This,  on  the  whole,  seems  to  be  considered  the  most  tenable  in- 
terpretation. 

*  John  i.  26,  iu  6,  9,  iii.  5-22,  iv.  6-16,  v.  3,  vii.  37,  39,  ix.  7,  xiii. 
I-S,  xix.  34. 


228  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

witnesses  in  the  Epistle  also.  Surely,  then,  our 
Apostle  would  be  eminently  unlikely  to  express  "  the 
Spirit  of  God  "  without  the  outward  water  by  "  water 
and  the  Spirit."  But  above  all,  Christians  should  be- 
ware of  a  "  licentious  and  deluding  alchemy  of  in- 
terpretation which  maketh  of  anything  whatsoever  it 
listeth."  In  immortal  words — "when  the  letter  of  the 
law  hath  two  things  plainly  and  expressly  specified, 
water  and  the  Spirit ;  water,  as  a  duty  required  on  our 
part,  the  Spirit,  as  a  gift  which  God  bestoweth  ;  there 
is  danger  in  so  presuming  to  interpret  it,  as  if  the 
clause  which  concerneth  ourselves  were  more  than 
needed.  We  may  by  such  rare  expositions  attain 
perhaps  in  the  end  to  be  thought  witty,  but  with  ill 
advice."^ 

But,  it  will  further  be  asked,  whether  we  bring  the 
Saviour's  saying — "  except  any  one  be  born  again  of 
water  and  the  Spirit " — into  direct  connection  with  the 
baptism  of  infants  ?  Above  all,  whether  we  are  not 
encouraging  every  baptised  person  to  hold  that  some- 
how or  other  he  will  have  a  part  in  the  victory  of  the 
regenerate  ? 

We  need  no  other  answer  than  that  which  is  implied 
in  the  very  force  of  the  word  here  used  by  St.  John — 
"  all  that  is  born  of  God  conquereth  the  world." 
"  That  is  born  "  is  the  participle  perfect.'-*  The  force 
of  the  perfect  is  not  simply  past  action,  but  such  action 
lasting  on  in  its  effects.     Our  text,  then,   speaks  only 


>  Hooker,  E.  P.,  V.  lix.  (4). 

'  So  the  perfect  is  used  throughout.  yiyivv7}Tai.  ii.  29,  iii.  9,  iv.  7. 
vav  rb  yeyepvrjixifov.  v.  4.  Very  remarkably  below,  nds  6  yeyevvrjin^uoi 
— dXXa  6  yevvTjdels  iK  rov  Gfou ;  the  first  of  the  regenerate  man  who 
continues  in  that  condition  of  grace,  the  second  of  the  Begotten  Son 
of  God  who  keeps  His  servant.     I  John  v.  18. 


V.3-S.]  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  229 

of  those  who  having  been  born  again  intc  che  kingdom 
continue  in  a  corresponding  condition,  and  unfold  the 
life  which  they  have  received.  The  Saviour  spoke  first 
and  chiefly  of  the  initial  act.  The  Apostle's  circum- 
stances, now  in  his  old  age,  naturally  led  him  to  look 
on  from  that.  St.  John  is  no  "  idolater  of  the  immediate." 
Has  the  gift  received  by  his  spiritual  children  worn 
long  and  lasted  well  ?  What  of  the  new  life  which 
should  have  issued  from  the  New  Birth  ?  Regenerate 
in  the  past,  are  they  renewed  in  the  present  ? 

This  simple  piece  of  exegesis  lets  us  at  once  perceive 
that  another  verse  in  this  Epistle,  often  considered  of 
almost  hopeless  perplexity,  is  in  truth  only  the  perfection 
of  sanctified  (nay,  it  may  be  said,  of  moral)  common- 
sense  ;  an  intuition  of  moral  and  spiritual  instinct. 
"Whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin :  for  his 
seed  remaineth  in  him  ;  and  he  cannot  sin,  because  he  is 
born  of  God."  We  have  just  seen  the  real  significance  of 
the  words  "  he  that  is  born  of  God  " — he  for  whom  his 
past  birth  lasts  on  in  its  effects.  "  He  doeth  not  sin,"  is 
not  a  sin-doer,  makes  it  not  his  "  trade,"  as  an  old  com- 
mentator says.  Nay,  "  he  is  not  able  to  be  "  (to  keep 
on)  "  sinning."  "  He  cannot  sin."  He  cannot !  There 
is  no  physical  impossibility.  Angels  will  not  sweep 
him  away  upon  their  resistless  pinions.  The  Spirit 
will  not  hold  him  by  the  hand  as  if  with  a  mailed  grasp, 
until  the  blood  spirts  from  his  finger-tips,  that  he  may 
not  take  the  wine-cup,  or  walk  out  to  the  guilty  assigna- 
tion. The  compulsion  of  God  is  like  that  which  is 
exercised  upon  us  by  some  pathetic  wounded-looking 
face  that  gazes  after  us  with  a  sweet  reproach.  Tell  the 
honest  poor  man  with  a  large  family  of  some  safe  and 
expeditious  way  of  transferring  his  neighbour's  money 
to  his  own  pocket.     He  will  answer,  "  I  cannot  steal;" 


230  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

that  is,  "  I  cannot  steal,  however  much  it  may  physically 
be  within  my  capacity,  without  a  burning  shame,  an 
agony  to  my  nature  worse  than  death."  On  some  day 
of  fierce  heat,  hold  a  draught  of  iced  wine  to  a  total 
abstainer,  and  invite  him  to  drink.  "  I  cannot,"  will  be 
his  reply.  Cannot !  He  can,  so  far  as  his  hand  goes ; 
he  cannot,  without  doing  violence  to  a  conviction,  to  a 
promise,  to  his  own  sense  of  truth.  And  he  who  con- 
tinues in  the  fulness  of  his  God-given  Birth  "  does  not 
do  sin,"  "  cannot  be  sinning."  Not  that  he  is  sinless, 
not  that  he  never  fails,  or  does  not  sometimes  fall ;  not 
that  sin  ceases  to  be  sin  to  him,  because  he  thinks  that 
he  has  a  standing  in  Christ.  But  he  cannot  go  on  in 
sin  without  being  untrue  to  his  birth  ;  without  a  stain 
upon  that  finer,  whiter,  more  sensitive  conscience, 
which  is  called  "  spirit "  in  a  son  of  God ;  without  a 
convulsion  in  his  whole  being  which  is  the  precursor 
of  death,  or  an  insensibility  which  is  death  actually 
begun. 

How  many  such  texts  as  these  are  practically  useless 
to  most  of  us !  The  armoury  of  God  is  full  of  keen 
swords  which  we  refrain  from  handling,  because  they 
have  been  misused  by  others.  None  is  more  neglected 
than  this.  The  fanatic  has  shrieked  out — "sin  in  my 
case  ! "  I  cannot  sin.  /  may  hold  a  sin  in  my  bosom  ; 
and  God  may  hold  me  in  His  arms  for  all  that.  At  least, 
1  may  hold  that  which  would  be  a  sin  in  you  and  most 
others  ;  but  to  me  it  is  not  sin."  On  the  other  hand, 
stupid  goodness  maunders  out  some  unintelligible  para- 
phrase, until  pew  and  reader  yawn  from  very  weariness. 
Divine  truth  in  its  purity  and  plainness  is  thus  dis- 
credited by  the  exaggeration  of  the  one,  or  buried  in 
the  leaden  winding-sheet  of  the  stupidity  of  the  other. 

In  leaving  this  portion  of  our  subject  we  may  com- 


V.  3-5-1  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  231 

pare  the  view  latent  in  the  very  idea  of  infant  baptism 
with  that  of  the  leader  of  a  well-known  sect  upon  the 
beginnings  of  the  spiritual  life  in  children. 

"  May  not  children  grow  up  into  salvation,  without 
knowing  the  exact  moment  of  their  conversion  ?  "  asks 
"General"  Booth.  His  answer  is — "yes,  it  may  be 
so ;  and  we  trust  that  in  the  future  this  will  be  the 
usual  way  in  which  children  may  be  brought  to  Christ." 
The  writer  goes  on  to  tell  us  how  the  New  Birth  will 
take  place  in  future.  "  When  the  conditions  named  in 
the  first  pages  of  this  volume  are  complied  with— when 
the  parents  are  godly,  and  the  children  are  surrounded 
by  holy  influences  and  examples  from  their  birth,  and 
trained  up  in  the  spirit  of  their  early  dedication — they 
will  doubtless  come  to  know  and  love  and  trust  their 
Saviour  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things.  The  Holy 
Ghost  will  take  possession  of  them  from  the  first. 
Mothers  and  fathers  will,  as  it  were,  put  them  into  the 
Saviour's  arms  in  their  swaddling  clothes,  and  He  will 
take  them,  and  bless  them,  and  sanctify  them  from  the 
very  womb,  and  make  them  His  own,  without  their 
knowing  the  hour  or  the  place  when  they  pass  from  the 
kingdom  of  darkness  into  the  kingdom  of  light.  In 
fact,  with  such  little  ones  it  shall  never  be  very  dark, 
for  their  natural  biith  shall  be,  as  it  were,  in  the 
spiritual  twilight,  which  begins  with  the  dim  dawn,  and 
increases  gradually  until  the  noonday  brightness  is 
reached ;  so  answering  to  the  prophetic  description, 
*  The  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light,  that 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.'  "^ 

No  one  will  deny  that  this  is  tenderly  and  beautifully 

*  Training  of  children ;  or  How  to  Make  the  Children  into  Saints 
and  Soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ.  By  the  Geneial  of  the  Salvation  Army. 
London  :  Salvation  Army  Book  Stores,  pp.  162,  163. 


233  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

written.  But  objections  to  its  teaching  will  crowd 
upon  the  mind  of  thoughtful  Christians.  It  seems  to 
defer  to  a  period  in  the  future,  to  a  new  era  incalculably 
distant,  when  Christendom  shall  be  absorbed  in  Salva- 
tionism,  that  which  St.  John  in  his  day  contemplated 
as  the  normal  condition  of  believers,  which  the  Church 
has  always  held  to  be  capable  of  realization,  which  has 
been  actually  realized  in  no  few  whom  most  of  us  must 
have  known.  Further  ;  the  fountain-heads  of  thought, 
like  those  of  the  Nile,  are  wrapped  in  obscurity.  By 
what  process  grace  may  work  with  the  very  young  is 
an  insoluble  problem  in  psychology,  which  Chris- 
tianity has  not  revealed.  We  know  nothing  further 
than  that  Christ  blessed  little  children.  That  blessing 
was  itiipartial,  for  it  was  communicated  to  all  who  were 
brought  to  Him  ;  it  was  real,  otherwise  He  would  not 
have  blessed  them  at  all.  That  He  conveys  to  them 
such  grace  as  they  are  capable  of  receiving  is  all  that 
we  can  know.  And  yet  again ;  the  Salvationist  theory 
exalts  parents  and  surroundings  into  the  place  of  Christ. 
It  deposes  His  sacrament,  which  lies  at  the  root  of  St. 
John's  language,  and  boasts  that  it  will  secure  Christ's 
end,  apparently  without  any  recognition  of  Christ's 
means. 

II. 

The  second  great  idea  in  the  verses  at  the  head  of 
this  discourse  is  Victory.  The  intended  issue  of  the 
New  Birth  is  conquest — "  all  that  is  born  of  God  con- 
quers the  world." 

The  idea  of  victory  is  almost^  exclusively  confined 

*  Not  quite,  cf.  Rom.  viii.  37,  xii.  21 ;  I  Cor.  xv.  55,  57.  The  sub- 
stantive vIkt]  occurs  only  I  John  v.  4.  A  slightly  different  form  (vikos) 
is  in  Matt.  xii.  20 ;  I  Cor.  xv.  54,  55,  57. 


V.3-S.]  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  233 

to  St.  John's  writings.  The  idea  is  first  expressed  by 
Jesus — "  be  of  good  cheer :  I  have  conquered  the 
world."  ^  The  first  prelusive  touch  in  the  Epistle, 
hints  at  the  fijlfilment  of  the  Saviour's  comfortable  word 
in  one  class  of  the  Apostle's  spiritual  children.  "  I 
write  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  have  conquered 
the  wicked  one.  I  have  written  unto  you,  young  men, 
because  ye  have  conquered  the  wicked  one."  ^  Next, 
a  bolder  and  ampler  strain — "ye  are  of  God,  little 
children,  and  have  conquered  them  :  because  greater  is 
He  that  is  in  you,  than  he  that  is  in  the  world."  ^  Then 
with  a  magnificent  persistence,  the  trumpet  of  Christ 
wakens  echoes  to  its  music  all  down  and  round  the 
defile  through  which  the  host  is  passing — "  all  that  is 
born  of  God  conquereth  the  world  :  and  this  is  the 
conquest  that  has  conquered  the  world — the  Faith 
which  is  ours."  *  When,  in  St.  John's  other  great  book, 
we  pass  with  the  seer  into  Patmos,  the  air  is,  indeed, 
"  full  of  noises  and  sweet  sounds."  But  dominant  over 
all  is  a  storm  of  triumph,  a  passionate  exultation  of 
victory.  Thus  each  epistle  to  each  of  the  seven  Churches 
closes  with  a  promise  "  to  him  that  conquereth." 

The  text  promises  two  forms  of  victory. 

I.  A  victory  is  promised  to  the  Church  universal. 
"  All  that  is  born  of  God  conquereth  the  world."  This 
conquest  is  concentrated  in,  almost  identified  with  "  the 
Faith."     Primarily,  in  this  place,  the  term  (here  alone 

*  John  xvi.  33. 

*  I  John  ii.  13,  14. 

*  1  John  iv.  4. 

*  It  does  not  seem  possible  to  convey  to  the  English  reader  the  four- 
fold harping  upon  the  word  (l  John  v.  4,  5)  by  any  other  rendering. 
"The  victory  that  hath  overcome  the  world"  (R.V.)  fails  in  this.  The 
noble  translation  of  virepviKw/jLep  (Rom.  viii.  27),  happily  retained  by 
the  Revisers,  is  rendered  consistent  by  the  translation  here  proposed. 


234  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY. 

found  in  our  Epistle)  is  not  the  faith  by  which  ive  believe, 
but  the  Faith  which  is  believed — as  in  some  other  places;^ 
not  faith  subjective,  but  The  Faith  objectively.  Here  is 
the  dogmatic  principle.  The  Faith  involves  definite 
knowledge  of  definite  principles.  The  religious  know- 
ledge, which  is  not  capable  of  being  put  into  definite 
propositions,  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  greatly 
about.  But  we  are  guarded  from  over-dogmatism.  The 
word  "  of  us  "  which  follows  "  the  Faith  "  is  a  mediating 
link  between  the  objective  and  the  subjective.  First,  we 
possess  this  Faith  as  a  common  heritage.  Then,  as  in 
the  Apostle's  creed  we  begin  to  individualise  this  common 
possession  by  prefixing  "  I  believe  "  to  every  article  of  it. 
Then  the  victory  contained  in  the  creed,  the  victory  which 
the  creed  is  (for  more  truly  again  than  of  Duty  may  it  be 
said  of  Faith,  "  thou  who  art  victory  "  ^),  is  made  over  to 
each  who  believes.  Each,  and  each  alone,  who  in  soul 
is  ever  believing,  in  practice  is  ever  victorious. 

This  declaration  is  full  of  promise  for  missionary  work. 
There  is  no  system  of  error,  however  ancient,  subtle,  or 
highly  organised,  which  must  not  go  down  before  the 
strong  collective  life  of  the  regenerate.  No  less  en- 
couraging is  it  at  home.  No  form  of  sin  is  incapable  of 
being  overthrown.  No  school  of  anti-Christian  thought 
is  invulnerable  or  invincible.  There  are  other  apostates 
besides  Julian  who  will  cry — "  Galilaee,  vicisti  !  " 

2.  The  second  victory    promised    is   individual,   forT 
each  of  us.     Not  only  where  cathedral-spires  lift  high 
the   triumphant   cross;    on    battle-fields    which    have 
added  kingdoms  to  Christendom  ;  by  the  martyr's  stake, 
or  in  the  arena  of  the  Coliseum,  have  these  words  proved 

'  Apoc.  ii.  13,  xiv.  12. 

•  "  Thou  who  art  victory ! " 

Wordsworth,  Odt  to  Duty, 


V.3-5-]  BIRTH  AND    VICTORY.  235 

true.  The  victory  comes  down  to  us.  In  hospitals,  in 
shops,  in  courts,  in  ships,  in  sick-rooms,  they  are  fulfilled 
for  us.  We  see  their  truth  in  the  patience,  sweet- 
ness, resignation,  of  little  children,  of  old  men,  of  weak 
women.  They  give  a  high  consecration  and  a  glorious 
meaning  to  much  of  the  suffering  that  we  see.  What, 
we  are  sometimes  tempted  to  cry — is  this  Christ's 
Army?  are  these  His  soldiers,  who  can  go  anywhere 
and  do  anything  ?  Poor  weary  ones !  with  white 
lips,  and  the  beads  of  death-sweat  on  their  faces,  and 
the  thorns  of  pain  ringed  like  a  crown  round  their 
foreheads  ;  so  wan,  so  worn,  so  tired,  so  suffering,  that 
even  our  love  dares  not  pray  for  them  to  live  a  little 
longer  yet.  Are  these  the  elect  of  the  elect,  the  van- 
guard of  the  regenerate,  who  carry  the  flag  of  the  cross 
where  its  folds  are  waved  by  the  storm  of  battle ;  whom 
St.  John  sees  advancing  up  the  slope  with  such  a  burst 
of  cheers  and  such  a  swell  of  music  that  the  words — 
"  this  is  the  conquest " — spring  spontaneously  from  his 
lips  ?  Perhaps  the  angels  answer  with  a  voice  which 
we  cannot  hear — "  whatsoever  is  born  of  God  con- 
quereth  the  v/orld."  May  we  fight  so  manfully  that 
each  may  render  if  not  his  "  pure  "  yet  his  purified 

"soul  unto  his  captain  Christ, 
Under  whose  colours  he  hath  fought  so  long: " 

— that  we  may  know  something  of  the  great  text  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  with  its  matchless  translation 
— "  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  who 
loved  us"  * — that  arrogance  of  victory  which  is  at  once 
so  splendid  and  so  saintly. 

'  Rom.  viii.  37. 


DISCOURSE  XII. 

THE  GOSPEL  AS  A   GOSPEL  OF  WITNESS;    THE 
THREE    WITNESSES. 

"It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  because  the  Spirit  is  truth. 
For  there  are  three  that  bear  witness,  the  Spirit,  and  the  water,  and 
the  blood  ;  and  these  three  agree  in  one.  If  we  receive  the  witness 
of  men,  the  witness  of  God  is  greater,  for  this  is  the  witness  of  God 
which  He  hath  testified  of  His  Son.  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son 
of  God  hath  the  witness  in  himself." — i  John  v.  6-io. 

IT  has  been  said  that  Apostles  and  apostolic  men 
were  as  far  as  possible  removed  from  common- 
sense,  and  have  no  conception  of  evidence  in  our 
acceptation  of  the  word.  About  this  statement  there  is 
scarcely  even  superficial  plausibility.  Common-sense 
is  the  measure  of  ordinary  human  tact  among  palpable 
realities.  In  relation  to  human  existence  it  is  the  balance 
of  the  estimative  faculties ;  the  instinctive  summary  of 
inductions  which  makes  us  rightly  credulous  and 
rightly  incredulous,  which  teaches  us  the  supreme 
lesson  of  life,  when  to  say  "yes,"  and  when  to  say 
"no."  Uncommon  sense  is  superhuman  tact  among  no 
less  real  but  at  present  impalpable  realities ;  the  spiritual 
faculty  of  forming  spiritual  inductions  aright.  So  St. 
John  among  the  three  great  canons  of  primary  truth 
with  which  he  closes  his  Epistle  writes — "we  know 
that  the  Son  of  God  hath  come  and  is  present,  and  hath 
given  us   understanding,  that  we  know  Him  who   is 


V.6-I0,]    THE  GOSPEL  AS  A   GOSPEL  OF  WITNESS.    237 

true,"*  So  with  evidences.  Apostles  did  not  draw 
them  out  with  the  same  logical  precision,  or  rather  not 
in  the  same  logical  form.  Yet  they  rested  their  con- 
clusions upon  the  same  abiding  principle  of  evidence, 
the  primary  axiom  of  our  entire  social  life,  that  there 
is  a  degree  of  human  evidence  which  practically  cannot 
deceive.  "  If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men."  The 
form  of  expression  implies  that  we  certainly  do.^ 

Peculiar  difficulty  has  been  felt  in  understanding  the 
paragraph.  And  one  portion  of  it  remains  difficult 
after  any  explanation.  But  we  shall  succeed  in  ap- 
prehending it  as  a  whole  only  upon  condition  of  taking 
one  guiding  principle  of  interpretation  with  us. 

The  word  witness  is  St.  John's  central  thought  here. 
He  is  determined  to  beat  it  into  our  thoughts  by  the 
most  unsparing  iteration.  He  repeats  it  ten  times 
over,  as  substantive  or  verb,  in  six  verses.'  His  object 
is  to  turn  our  attention  to  his  Gospel,  and  to  this  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  it — its  being  from  beginning  to 
end  a  Gospel  of  witness.  This  witness  he  declares  to 
be  fivefold,  (i)  The  witness  of  the  Spirit,  of  which 
the  fourth  Gospel  is  pre-eminently  full.  (2)  The  wit- 
ness of  the  Divine  Humanity,  of  the  God-Man  who  is 
not  man  deified,  but  God  humanified.    This  verse  is  no 

'  S^SuKev  7]tuv  didvoiav  tva  yivucTKO/Miv  K.r.\.  I  John  v.  20.  N.  T. 
lexicographers  gives  as  its  meaning  intelligenlia  (einsichf).  See 
Grimm.  Bretsclm.,  s.v.)  Prof.  Westcott  remarks  that  "generally 
nouns  which  express  intellectual  powers  are  rare  in  St.  John's 
writings."  But  Siivoia  is  the  word  by  which  the  LXX.  translate  the 
Hebrew  37  and  has  thus  a  moral  and  emotional  tinge  imparted  to  it. 
We  may  compare  the  sense  in  which  Aristotle  uses  it  in  his  Poetics 
for  the  cast  of  thought,  or  general  sentiment.     {Poet.,  vi.) 

*  c/  TT]v  ixaprvpiav  tQv  dfdpwTruv  \a/x^dvofji,ev.     I  John  v.  9. 

*  The  A.  V.  (very  unhappily)  tried  to  minimise  this  reiteration 
by  the  introduction  of  synonym.s  in  four  places — "bear  record," 
"  record  "  (vv.  7,  10,  ll),  "hath  testified  (ver.  9). 


238       THE  GOSPEL  AS  A   GOSPEL   OF  WITNESS; 

doubt  partly  polemical,  against  heretics  of  the  day,  who 
would  clip  the  great  picture  of  the  Gospel,  and  force  it 
into  the  petty  frame  of  their  theory.  This  is  He  (the 
Apostle  urges)  who  came  on  the  stage  of  the  world's  and 
the  Church's  history  *  as  the  Messiah,  under  the  condi- 
tion, so  to  speak,  of  water  and  blood;''  bringing  with  him, 
accompanied  by,  not  the  water  only,  but  the  water  and 
the  blood.'  Cerinthus  separated  the  Christ,  the  divine 
iEon,  from  Jesus  the  holy  but  mortal  man.  The  two, 
the  divine  potency  and  the  human  existence,  met  at 
the  waters  of  Jordan,  on  the  day  of  the  Baptism,  when 
the  Christ  united  himself  to  Jesus.  But  the  union 
was  brief  and  unessential.  Before  the  crucifixion,  the 
divine  ideal  Christ  withdrew.  The  man  suffered.  The 
impassible  immortal  potency  was  far  away  in  heaven. 
St.  John  denies  the  fortuitous  juxta-position  of  two 
accidentally-united  existences.  We  worship  one  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  attested  not  only  by  Baptism  in  Jordan, 
the  witness  of  water,  but  by  the  death  on  Calvary,  the 
witness  of  blood.  He  came  by  water  and  blood,  as 
the  means  by  which  His  office  was  manifested ;  but 
with  the  water  and  with  the  blood,  as  the  sphere  in 
which  He  exercises  that  office.  When  we  turn  to  the 
Gospel,  and  look  at  the  pierced  side,  we  read  of  blood 
and  water,  the  order  of  actual  history  and  physiological 
fact.  Here  St.  John  takes  the  ideal,  mystical,  sacra- 
mental order,  water  and  blood — cleansing  and  redemp- 
tion— and  the  sacraments  which  perpetually  symbolise 
and  convey  them.  Thus  we  have  Spirit,  water,  blood. 
Three  are  they  who  are  ever  witnessing."  *     These  are 

*  a  iJ5aTOS  KoX  a'iix.aToi. 

*  ovK  iv  T<fi  (idari  ij.Lvov,  dXX'  eV  r^  CSort  koX  ev  ry  af/cton. 

*  Tpih  daif  01  /jLoprvpovi'Tei,  ver.  7. 


V.6-I0.]  THE    THREE    WITNESSES.  239 

three  great  centres  round  which  St.  John's  Gospel 
turns.^  These  are  the  three  genuine  witnesses,  the 
trinity  of  witness,  the  shadow  of  the  Trinity  in  heaven. 
(3)  Again  the  fourth  Gospel  is  a  Gospel  of  human 
witness,  a  tissue  woven  out  of  many  lines  of  human 
attestation.  It  records  the  cries  of  human  souls  over- 
heard and  noted  down  at  the  supreme  crisis-mon.ent, 
from  the  Baptist,  Philip,  and  Nathanael,  to  the  everlast- 
ing spontaneous  creed  of  Christendom  on  its  knees 
before  Jesus,  the  cry  of  Thomas  ever  rushing  molten 
from  a  heart  of  fire — "  my  Lord  and  my  God."  (4)  But 
if  we  receive,  as  we  assuredly  must  and  do  receive,  the 
overpowering  and  soul-subduing  mass  of  attesting  human 
evidence,  how  much  more  must  we  receive  the  Divine 
witness,  the  witness  of  God  so  conspicuously  exhibited 
in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  1  "  The  witness  of  God  is 
greater,  because  this "  (even  the  history  in  the  pages 
to  which  he  adverts)  "  is  the  witness  ;  because  "  (I  say 
with  triumphant  reiteration)  "  He  hath  witnessed  con- 
cerning His  Son."^  This  witness  of  God  in  the  last 
Gospel  is  given  in  four  forms — by  Scripture,'  by  the 
Father,*  by  the  Son  Himself,^  by  His  works.*  (5)  This 
great  volume  of  witness  is  consummated  and  brought 
home  by  another.  He  who  not  merely  coldly  assents 
to  the  word  of  Christ,  but  lifts  the  whole  burden  of  his 


'  The  Water,  John  iii,  5,  cf.  i.  26-33,  •'•  9i  '''•  23,  iv.  13,  v.  4,  ix.  7. 
The  Blood,  vi.  53,  54,  56,  xix.  34.  Ihe  Spirit,  vii.  39,  xiv.,  xv.,  xvi., 
XX.  22.  The  water  centres  in  Baptism  (iii.  5) ;  the  blood  is  symboHsed, 
exhibited,  in  Holy  Communion  (vi.)  :  the  Spirit  is  perpetually  making 
them  effective. 

6ri  aiirrj  iarlv  ij  fiaprvpia  rod  Qeov  6ti  fieiMapTvpriKev  irepl  rov  vio5 
aiiToC,  ver.  9. 

*  V.  39,  46,  etc.  ■  viii.  17,  18. 

vii    18    xii.  25,  •  ver.  36 


240       THE   GOSPEL  AS  A    GOSPEL   OF   WITNESS. 

belief  on  to  the  Son  of  God,^  hath  the  witness  in  him. 
That  which  was  logical  and  external  becomes  internal 
and  experimental. 

In  this  ever-memorable  passage,  all  know  that  an 
interpolation  has  taken  place.  The  words — "  in  heaven 
the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  these 
three  are  one.  And  there  are  three  that  bear  witness  in 
earth  " — are  a  gloss.  A  great  sentence  of  one  of  the 
first  of  critics  may  well  reassure  any  weak  believers  who 
dread  the  candour  of  Christian  criticism,  or  suppose  that 
it  has  impaired  the  evidence  for  the  great  dogma  of  the 
Trinity.  "If  the  fourth  century  knew  that  text,  let  it 
come  in,  in  God's  name ;  but  if  that  age  did  not  know 
it,  then  Arianism  in  its  height  was  beaten  down 
without  the  help  of  that  verse ;  and,  let  the  fact  prove 
as  it  will,  the  doctrine  is  unshaken."^  The  human 
material  with  which  they  have  been  clamped  should 
not  blind  us  to  the  value  of  the  heavenly  jewels  which 
seemed  to  be  marred  by  their  earthly  setting. 

It  is  constantly  said — as  we  think  with  considerable 
misapprehension — that  in  his  Epistle  St.  John  may 
imply,  but  does  not  refer  directly  to  any  particular  inci- 
dent in,  his  Gospel,  It  is  our  conviction  that  St.  John 
very  specially  includes  the  Resurrection — the  central 
point  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity — among  the  things 
attested  by  the  witness  of  men.  We  propose  in  another 
discourse  to  examine  the  Resurrection  from  St.  John's 
point  of  view. 

*  6  wufTeiuv  eh  rbv  vlbv  tov  6eoO,  ver.  I(X 

•  Bentley,  Letter  of  January  1st,  I?'?' 


DISCOURSE  XIII. 

THE   WITNESS  OF  MEN  {APPLIED   TO   THE 
RESURRECTION). 

"  If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men." — I  John  v.  9, 

AT  an  early  period  in  the  Christian  Church  the 
passage  in  which  these  words  occur,  was  selected 
as  a  fitting  Epistle  for  the  First  Sunday  after  Easter, 
when  believers  may  be  supposed  to  review  the  whole 
body  of  witness  to  the  risen  Lord  and  to  triumph  in 
the  victory  of  faith.  It  will  afford  one  of  the  best 
illustrations  of  that  which  is  covered  by  the  compre- 
hensive canon — "  if  we  receive  the  witness  of  men  " — 
if  we  consider  the  unity  of  essential  principles  in  the 
narratives  of  the  Resurrection,  and  draw  the  natural 
conclusions  from  them, 

I. 

Let  us  note  the  unity  of  essential  principles  in  the 
narratives  of  the  Resurrection. 

St.  Matthew  hastens  on  from  Jerusalem  to  the  ap- 
pearance in  Galilee.  "  Behold  !  He  goeth  before  you 
into  Galilee"  is,  in  some  sense,  the  key  of  the  28th 
chapter.  St.  Luke,  on  the  other  hand,  speaks  only  of 
manifestations  in  Jerusalem  or  its  neighbourhood. 

Now  St.  John's  Resurrection  history  falls  in  the 
20th  chapter  into  four  pieces,  with  three  manifestations 
in  Jerusalem.     The  21st  chapter  (the  appendix-chapter) 

16 


242  THE    WITNESS  OF  MEN 


also  falls  into  four  pieces,  with  one  manifestation  to 
the  seven  disciples  in  Galilee. 

St.  John  makes  no  profession  of  telling  us  all  the 
appearances  which  were  known  to  the  Church,  or  even 
all  of  which  he  was  personally  cognisant.  In  the 
treasures  of  the  old  man's  memory  there  were  many 
more  which,  for  whatever  reason,  he  did  not  write. 
But  these  distinct  continuous  specimens  of  a  permitted 
communing  with  the  eternal  glorified  life  (supplemented 
on  subsequent  thought  by  another  in  the  last  chapter) 
are  as  good  as  three  or  four  hundred  for  the  great 
purpose  of  the  Apostle.  "These  are  written  that  ye 
might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God."  ^ 

Througtiout  St.  John's  narrative  every  impartial 
reider  will  find  delicacy  of  thought,  abundance  of 
matter,  minuteness  of  detail.  He  will  find  something 
more.  While  he  feels  that  he  is  not  in  cloudland  or 
dreamland,  he  will  yet  recognise  that  he  walks  in  a 
land  which  is. wonderful,  because  the  central  figure  in 
it  is  One  whose  name  is  Wonderful.  The  fact  is  fact, 
and  yet  it  is  something  more.  For  a  short  time  poetry 
and  history  are  absolutely  coincident.  Here,  if  any- 
where, is  Herder's  saying  true,  that  the  fourth  Gospel 
seems  to  be  written  with  a  feather  which  has  dropped 
from  an  angel's  wing. 

The  unity  in  essential  principles  which  has  been 
claimed  for  these  narratives  taken  together  is  not  a 
lifeless  identity  in  details.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  worked 
out  by  the  dissecting-maps  of  elaborate  harmonies. 
It  is  not  the  imaginative  unity  which  is  poetry;  nor 
the   mechanical   unity,  which   is   fabrication;    nor  the 

'  The  writer  is  entirely  persuaded  that  St.  John  in  chap.  xx.  30,  31 
refers  to  the  Resurrection  "signs,"  and  not  to  miracles  geneially. 


V.9.]  ArPLIED    TO   THE  RESURRECTION,  243 

passionless  unity,  which  is  commended  in  a  police- 
report.  It  is  not  the  thin  unity  of  plain-song  ;  it  is 
the  rich  unity  of  dissimilar  tones  blended  into  a  fugue. 

This  unity  may  be  considered  in  two  essential  agree- 
ments of  the  four  Resurrection  histories. 

I.  All  the  Evangelists  agree  in  reticence  on  one 
point — in  abstinence  from  one  claim. 

If  any  of  us  were  framing  for  himself  a  body  of  such 
evidence  for  the  Resurrection  as  should  almost  extort 
acquiescence,  he  would  assuredly  insist  that  the  Lord 
should  have  been  seen  and  recognised  after  the  Resur- 
rection by  miscellaneous  crowds — or,  at  the  very  least, 
by  hostile  individuals.  Not  only  by  a  tender  Mary 
Magdalene,  an  impulsive  Peter,  a  rapt  John,  a  Tliomas 
through  all  his  unbelief  nervously  anxious  to  be  con- 
vinced. Let  Him  be  seen  by  Pilate,  by  Caiaphas,  by 
some  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  of  the  priests,  of  the 
Jewish  populace.  Certainly,  if  the  Evangelists  had 
simply  aimed  at  effective  presentation  of  evidence,  they 
would  have  put  forward  statements  of  this  kind. 

But  the  apostolic  principle — the  apostolic  canon  of 
Resurrection  evidence — was  very  different.  St.  Luke 
has  preserved  it  for  us,  as  it  is  given  by  St.  Peter. 
"  Him  God  raised  up  the  third  day,  and  gave  Him  to 
be  made  manifest  after  He  rose  again  from  the  dead, 
not  to  all  the  people,  but  unto  witnesses  chosen  before 
of  God,  even  to  us."^     He  shall,  indeed,  appear  again 

'  Acts  X.  41,  42.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  R.  V.  has  not  boldly 
given  us  such  an  arrangement  of  the  words  in  this  important  passage 
as  would  at  once  connect  "  made  manifest  "  with  "  after  He  rose  again 
from  the  dead,"  and  avoid  making  the  Apostle  state  that  the  chosen 
witnesses  ate  and  drank  with  Christ  after  the  Resurrection.  St.  Peter 
mentions  that  particular  characteristic  of  the  Apostles  which  made 
them  judges  not  to  be  gainsayed  of  the  identity  of  the  Risen  One 
with  Him  with  whom  they  used  to  eat  and  drink. 


244  THE    WITNESS  OF  MEN 

to  all  the  people,  to  every  eye ;  but  that  shall  be  at  the 
great  Advent.  St.  John,  with  his  ideal  tenderness,  has 
preserved  a  word  of  Jesus,  which  gives  us  St.  Peter's 
canon  of  Resurrection  evidence,  in  a  lovelier  and  more 
spiritual  form.  Christ  as  He  rose  at  Easter  should  be 
visible,  but  only  to  the  eye  of  love,  only  to  the  eye  which 
life  fills  with  tears  and  heaven  with  light — "yet  a  little 
while,  and  the  world  seeih  Me  no  more  ;  but  ye  see 
Me.  .  .  He  that  loveth  Me  shall  be  loved  of  My  Father, 
and  I  will  manifest  Myself  to  Him."^  Round  that  ideal 
canon  St.  John's  Resurrection-history  is  twined  with 
undying  tendrils.  Those  words  may  be  written  by  us 
with  our  softest  pencils  over  the  20th  and  2 1st  chapters 
of  the  fourth  Gospel.  There  is — very  possibly  there 
can  be — under  our  present  human  conditions,  no  mani- 
festation of  Him  who  was  dead  and  now  liveth,  except 
to  belief,  or  to  that  kind  of  doubt  which  springs  fiom 
love. 

That  which  is  true  of  St.  John  is  true  of  all  the 
Evangelists. 

They  take  that  Gospel,  which  is  the  life  of  their 
life.  They  bare  its  bosom  to  the  stab  of  Celsus/  to  the 
bitter  sneer  plagiarised  by  Renan — "  why  did  He  not 
appear  to  all,  to  His  judges  and  enemies  ?  Why  only  to 
one  excitable  woman,  and  a  circle  of  His  initiated  ? " 

'  John  xiv.  19-21. 

''  Tts  Tovjo  elSeu  ;  yvvi)  TrdpoMTpos,  Kol  el  Ttj  fiXXos  tQv  iK  rrjs  airrjs 
yorjTtias.  "Ore  /j-iv  rjTncTTelTo  iv  auifiari  iracnv  dvidrjv  (freely,  without 
restraint)  iKripvrrtv,  ore  de  iriaTiv  &v  tVxi'pa"  iraptix^v  Ik  veKpQv  dpaffrds 
(A  fibv(fi  yvvai'cf)  Kal  rols  eavrou  Otacnwraii  (adepts,  initiated)  Kpvp5r]v 
TrapecpaivtTU  .  .  .  ^XPV"  eiTe/s  6vtws  dtiav  dOfafiiv  iK(prjvai  ijOeXev  6 
'Irjcrovi  aiirois  rets  iTr-qpedai  kuI  T(p  KaTahiKdaavri  koI  SXws  iraaiv  6<p9i}vai, 
[Cclsus,  ap,  Otig.,  2,  55,  59,  70,  63.]  The  passage  is  given  in 
Kudolph  Anger's  invaluableSywoy&sj's  Evang.  cum  locis  qui  supersunt 
parallelis  lillerarunt  el  traditionum  Evang.  Irenceo.  aiitiquiorunt,  p.  254. 


V.9.  APPLIED    TO    THE  RESURRECTION.  245 

"The  hallucination  of  a  hysterical  woman  endowed 
Christendom  with  a  risen  God."  ^  An  apocryphal  Gospel 
unconsciously  violates  this  apostolic,  or  rather  divine 
canon,  by  stating  that  Jesus  gave  His  grave-clothes  to 
one  of  the  High  Priest's  servants.^  There  was  every 
reason  but  one  why  St.  John  and  the  other  Evangelists 
should  have  narrated  such  stories.  There  was  only  one 
reason  why  they  should  not,  but  that  was  all-sufficient. 
Their  Master  was  the  Truth  as  well  as  the  Life.  They 
dared  not  lie. 

Here,  then,  is  one  essential  accordance  in  the  narra- 
tives of  the  Resurrection.  They  record  no  appearances 
of  Jesus  to  enemies  or  to  unbelievers. 

2.  A  second  unity  of  essential  principle  will  be  found 
in  the  impression  produced  upon  the  witnesses. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  moment  of  terror  at  the  sepul- 
chre, when  they  had  seen  the  angel  clothed  in  the  long 
white  garment.  "  They  trembled,  and  were  amazed  ; 
neither  said  they  anything  to  any  man  ;  for  they  were 
afraid."  So  writes  St.  Mark.'  And  no  such  v.7ord  ever 
formed  the  close  of  a  Gospel !  On  the  Easter  Sunday 
evening  there  was  another  moment  when  they  were 
"terrified  and  affrighted,  and  supposed  that  they  had 
seen  a  spirit."  *  But  this  passes  away  like  a  shadow.  For 
man,  the  Risen  Jesus  turns  doubt  into  faith,  faith  into  joy. 
For  woman.  He  turns  sorrow  into  joy.  From  the  sacred 
wounds  joy  rains  over  into  their  souls.     "  He  showed 

'  7W7J  Trdpoiarpos,  Celsus.  "Moments  sacres  ou  la  passion  d'une 
hallucinee  donne  an  monde  un  Dieu  ressuscite."  Renan,  Vit  de 
Jesus,  434. 

^  "  Post  Resurrectionem  .  .  .  Dominus  quum  dedisset  sindonem  servo 
sacerdotis  " — Evang.  ad  Heb. — Matt,  xxvii.  59. — R.  Anger,  Synopsis 
Evatig.,  288. 

«  Mark  xvi.  8. 

*  Luke  xxiv.  37. 


246  THE    WITNESS  OF  MEN 

them  His  hands  and  His  feet  .  .  .  while  they  yet  believed 
not  for  joy  and  wondered."  "  He  showed  unto  them 
His  hands  and  His  side.  Then  were  the  disciples 
glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord."^  Each  face  of  those 
who  beheld  Him  wore  after  that  a  smile  through  all 
tears  and  forms  of  death.  "  Come,"  cried  the  great 
Swedish  singer,  gazing  upon  the  dead  face  of  a  holy 
friend,  "come  and  see  this  great  sight.  Here  is  a 
woman  who  has  seen  Christ."  Many  of  us  know  what 
she  meant,  for  we  too  have  looked  upon  those  dear  to 
us  who  have  seen  Christ.  Over  all  the  awful  stillness — 
under  all  the  cold  whiteness  as  of  snow  or  marble — 
that  strange  soft  light,  that  subdued  radiance,  what  shall 
we  call  it  ?  wonder,  love,  sweetness,  pardon,  purity, 
rest,  worship,  discovery.  The  poor  face  often  dimmed 
with  tears,  tears  of  penitence,  of  pain,  of  sorrow,  some 
perhaps  which  we  caused  to  flow,  is  looking  upon  a 
great  sight.  Of  such  the  beautiful  text  is  true,  written 
by  a  sacred  poet  in  a  language  of  which  to  many  verbs 
are  pictures.  "  They  looked  unto  Him,  and  were 
lightened^  *  That  meeting  of  lights  without  a  name  it 
13  which  makes  up  what  angels  call  joy.  There  re- 
mained some  of  that  light  on  all  who  had  seen  the 
Risen  Lord.  Each  might  say — "  have  I  not  seen 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ? " 

This  effect,  like  every  effect,  had  a  cause. 

Scripture  implies  in  the  Risen  Jesus  a  form  with  all 
heaviness  and  suffering  lifted  off  it — with  the  glory,  fresh- 
ness, elasticity,  of  the  new  life,  overflowing  with  beauty 
and  power.  He  had  a  voice  with  some  of  the  pathos  of 
affection,  making  .its  sweet  concession  to  human  sensi- 
bility :   saying,  "  Mary,"  "  Thomas,"  "  Simon,  son   of 


•  Luke  xxiv.  41 ;  John  xx.  20.  •  Ps.  xxxiv.  l$. 


V.9.]  APPLIED   TO   THE  RESURRECTION.  247 

Jonas."  He  had  a  presence  at  once  so  majestic  that 
they  durst  not  question  Him,  yet  so  full  of  magnetic 
attraction  that  Magdalene  clings  to  His  feet,  and  Peter 
flings  Himself  into  the  waters  when  he  is  sure  that  it 
is  the  Lord.^ 

Now  let  it  be  remarked  that  this  consideration  entirely 
disposes  of  that  afterthought  of  critical  ingenuity  which 
has  taken  the  place  of  the  base  old  Jewish  theor^^ — 
"  His  disciples  came  by  night,  and  stole  Him  away,"  ^ 
That  theory,  indeed,  has  been  blown  into  space  by 
Christian  apologetics.  And  now  not  a  few  are  turning 
to  the  solution  that  He  did  not  really  die  upon  the 
cross,  but  was  taken  down  alive. 

There  are  other,  and  more  than  sufficient  refuta- 
tions. One  from  the  character  of  the  august  Sufferer, 
who  would  not  have  deigned  to  receive  adoration  upon 
false  pretences.  One  from  the  minute  observation  by 
St.  John  of  the  physiological  effect  of  the  thrust  of  the 
soldier's  lance,  to  which  he  also  reverts  in  the  context. 

But  here,  we  only  ask  what  effect  the  appearance  of 
the  Saviour  among  His  disciples,  supposing  that  He 
had  not  died,  must  unquestionably  have  had. 

He  would  only  have  been  taken  down  from  the  cross 
something  more  than  thirty  hours.  His  brow  punctured 
with  the  crown  of  thorns;  the  wounds  in  hands,  feet, 
and  side,  yet  unhealed ;  the  back  raw  and  torn  with 
scourges ;  the  frame  cramped  by  the  frightful  tension 
of  six  long  hours — a  lacerated  and  shattered  man, 
awakened  to  agony  by  the  coolness  of  the  sepulchre 
and  by  the  pungency  of  the  spices  ;  a  spectral,  trembling,  • 
fevered,  lamed,  skulking  thing — could  that  have  seemed 
the  Prince  of  Life,  the  Lord  of  Glory,  the  Bright  and 

'  John  xxi.  12,  cf.  7.  *  Matt,  xxviii.  13. 


248  THE   WITNESS  OF  MEN 

Morning  Star  ?  Those  who  had  seen  Him  in  Gethse- 
mane  and  on  the  cross,  and  then  on  Easter,  and  during- 
the  forty  days,  can  scarcely  speak  of  His  Resurrection 
without  using  language  which  attains  to  more  than 
lyrical  elevation.  Think  of  St.  Peter's  anthemlike  burst. 
**  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  hath  begotten  us  again  to  a  lively  hope, 
by  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 
Think  of  the  words  which  St.  John  heard  Him  utter. 
"I  am  the  First  and  the  Living,  and  behold!  I  became 
dead,  and  I  am,  living  unto  the  ages  of  ages."  ^ 

Let  us,  then,  fix  our  attention  upon  the  unity  of 
all  the  Resurrection  narratives  in  these  two  essential 
principles,  (i)  The  appearances  of  the  Risen  Lord  to 
belief  and  love  only.  (2)  The  impression  common  to 
all  the  narrators  of  glory  on  His  part,  of  joy  on  theirs. 

We  shall  be  ready  to  believe  that  this  was  part  of  the 
great  body  of  proof  which  was  in  the  Apostle's  mind, 
when  pointing  to  the  Gospel  with  which  this  Epistle 
was  associated,  he  wrote  of  this  human  but  most  con- 
vincing testimony — "if  we  receive,"  as  assuredly  we 
do,  "the  witness  of  men" — of  evangelists  among  the 
number, 

II. 

Too  often  such  discussions  as  these  end  unpractically 
enough,     loo  often 

"  When  the  critic  has  done  his  best, 
The  pearl  of  price  at  reason's  test 
On  the  Professor's  lecture  table 
Lies,  dust  and  ashes  levigable." 

But,  after  all,  we   may  well  ask :    can   we  afford   to 
dispense  with  this   well-balanced   probability  ?     Is  it 

'  I  Pet.  i.  3,  4;  Apoc.  i.  17,  18. 


V.9.]  APPLIED    TO   THE  RESURRECTION.  249 

well  for  us  to  face  life  and  death  without  taking  it, 
in  some  form,  into  the  account  ? 

Now  at  the  present  moment,  it  may  safely  be  said 
that,  for  the  best  and  noblest  intellects  imbued  with 
the  modern  philosophy,  as  for  the  best  and  noblest  of 
old  who  were  imbued  with  the  ancient  philosophy,  ex- 
ternal to  Christian  revelation,  immortality  is  still,  as 
before,  a  fair  chance,  a  beautiful  "  perhaps,"  a  splendid 
possibility.  Evolutionism  is  growing  and  maturing 
somewhere  another  Butler,  who  will  write  in  another, 
and  possibly  more  satisfying  chapter,  than  that  least 
convincing  of  any  in  the  Analogy — "  of  a  Future  State." 

What  has  Darwinism  to  say  on  the  matter  ? 

Much.  Natural  selection  seems  to  be  a  pitiless 
worker ;  its  instrument  is  death.  But,  when  we 
broaden  our  survey,  the  sum-total  of  the  result  is 
everywhere  advance — what  is  mainly  worthy  of  notice, 
in  man  the  advance  of  goodness  and  virtue.  For  of 
goodness,  as  of  freedom, 

"  The  battle  once  begun 
Though  baffled  oft,  is  always  won." 

Humanity  has  had  to  travel  thousands  of  miles,  inch 
by  inch,  towards  the  light.  We  have  made  such  progress 
that  we  can  see  that  in  time,  relatively  short,  we  shall 
be  in  noonday.  After  long  ages  of  strife,  of  victory 
for  hard  hearts  and  strong  sinews,  goodness  begins  to 
wipe  away  the  sweat  of  agony  from  her  brow ;  and  will 
stand,  sweet,  smiling,  triumphant  in  the  world.  A 
gracious  life  is  free  for  man ;  generation  after  genera- 
tion a  softer  ideal  stands  before  us,  and  we  can  con- 
ceive a  day  when  "  the  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth." 
Do  not  say  that  evolution,  if  proved  a  outrance,  brutalises 
man.     Far  from  it.     It  lifts  him  from  below  out  of  the 


250  THE    WITNESS  OF  MEN 

brute  creation.  What  theology  calls  original  sin, 
modern  philosophy  the  brute  inheritance — the  ape,  and 
the  goat,  and  the  tiger — is  dying  out  of  man.  The  per- 
fecting of  human  nature  and  of  human  society  stands  out 
as  the  goal  of  creation.  In  a  sense,  all  creation  waits  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  Nor  need  the  true 
Darwinian  necessarily  fear  materialism.  "Livers  secrete 
bile — brains  secrete  thought,"  is  smart  and  plausible,  but 
it  is  shallow.  Brain  and  thought  are,  no  doubt,  con- 
nected— but  the  connection  is  of  simultaneousness,  of 
two  things  in  concordance  indeed,  but  not  related  as 
cause  and  effect.  If  cerebral  physiology  speaks  of 
annihilation  when  the  brain  is  destroyed,  she  speaks 
ignorantly  and  without  a  brief. 

The  greatest  thinkers  in  the  Natural  Religion 
department  of  the  new  philosophy  seem  then  to  be 
very  much  in  the  same  position  as  those  in  the  same 
department  of  the  old.  For  immortality  there  is  a 
sublime  probability.  With  man,  and  man's  advance 
in  goodness  and  virtue  as  the  goal  of  creation,  who 
shall  say  that  the  thing  so  long  provided  for,  the  goal 
of  creation,  is  likely  to  perish  ?  Annihilation  is  a 
hypothesis ;  immortality  is  a  hypothesis.  But  im- 
mortality is  the  more  likely  as  well  as  the  more  beauti- 
ful of  the  two.  We  may  believe  in  it,  not  as  a  thing 
demonstrated,  but  as  an  act  of  faith  that  "  God  will 
not  put  us  to  permanent  intellectual  confusion."  * 

But  we  may  well  ask  whether  it  is  wise  and  well  to 
refuse  to  intrench  this  probability  behind  another.  Is  it 
likely  that  He  who  has  so  much  care  for  us  as  to  make 
us  the  goal  of  a  drama  a  million  times  more  complex 
than   our  fathers  dreamed   of;    who  lets  us  see    that 

'  See  The  Destiny  of  Man,  viewed  in  the  light  of  his  origin,  by  John 
Fi&ke,  especially  the  three  remarkable  chapters  pp.  96-119. 


V.9.]  APPLIED   TO   THE  RESURRECTION.  251 

He  has  not  removed  us  out  of  his  sight ;  will  leave 
Himself,  and  with  Himself  our  hopes,  without  witness 
in  history  ?  History  is  especially  human  ;  human 
evidence  the  branch  of  moral  science  of  which  man  is 
master — for  man  is  the  best  interpreter  of  man.  The 
primary  axiom  of  family,  of  social,  of  legal,  of  moral 
life,  is,  that  there  is  a  kind  and  degree  of  human 
evidence  which  we  ought  not  to  refuse ;  that  if 
credulity  is  voracious  in  belief,  incredulity  is  no  less 
voracious  in  negation ;  that  if  there  is  a  credulity  which 
is  simple,  there  is  an  incredulity  which  is  unreasonable 
and  perilous.  Is  it  then  well  to  grope  for  the  keys  of 
death  in  darkness,  and  turn  from  the  hand  that  holds 
them  out ;  to  face  the  ugly  realities  of  the  pit  with  less 
consolation  than  is  the  portion  of  our  inheritance  in  the 
faith  of  Christ  ? 

"The  disciples,"  John  tells  us,  "went  away  again 
unto  their  own  home.  But  Mary  was  standing  without 
at  the  sepulchre  weeping."  ^  Weeping !  What  else 
is  possible  while  we  are  outside,  while  we  stand — 
what  else  until  we  stoop  down  from  our  proud  grief  to 
the  sepulchre,  humble  our  speculative  pride,  and  con- 
descend to  gaze  at  the  death  of  Jesus  face  to  face  ? 
When  we  do  so,  we  forget  the  hundred  voices  that  tell 
us  that  the  Resurrection  is  partly  invented,  partly 
imagined,  partly  ideally  true.  We  may  not  see  angels 
in  white,  nor  hear  their  "  why  weepest  thou  ?  "  But 
assuredly  we  shall  hear  a  sweeter  voice,  and  a  stronger 
than  theirs ;  and  our  name  will  be  on  it,  and  His  name 
will  rush  to  our  lips  in  the  language  most  expressive 
to  us — as  Mary  said  unto  Him  in  Hebrew,^  Rabboni. 

•  John  XX,  10,  II. 

*  The  word  'E/S/jacWf  had  unfortunately  dropped  out  of  the  T.  R, 
John  XX.  16, 


252  THE    WITNESS  OF  MEN 

Then  we  shall  find  that  the  grey  of  morning  is  passing ; 
that  the  thin  thread  of  scarlet  upon  the  distant  hills  is 
deepening  into  dawn  ;  that  in  that  world  where  Christ 
is  the  dominant  law  the  ruling  principle  is  not  natural 
selection  which  works  through  death,  but  supernatural 
selection  which  works  through  life ;  that  "  because  He 
lives,  we  shall  live  also."  ^ 

With  the  reception  of  the  witness  of  men  then,  and 
among  them  of  such  men  as  the  writer  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  all  follows.     For  Christ, 

"Earth  breaks  up — time  drops  away;— 
In  flows  Heaven  with  its  new  day 
Of  endless  life,  when  He  who  trod, 
Very  Man  and  very  God, 
This  earth  in  weakness,  shame,  and  pain^ 
Dying  the  death  whose  signs  remain 
Up  yonder  on  the  accursed  tree ; 
Shall  come  again,  no  more  to  be 
Of  captivity  the  thrall — 
But  the  true  God  all  in  all. 
King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords, 
As  His  servant  John  received  the  words— 
'  I  died,  and  live  for  evermore.'  " 

For  us  there  comes  the  hope  in  Paradise — the  con- 
nection with  the  living  dead — the  pulsation  through  the 
isthmus  of  the  Church,  from  sea  to  sea,  from  us  to 
them — the  tears  not  without  smiles  as  we  think  of  the 
long  summer-day  when  Christ  who  is  our  life  shall 
appear — the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  when 
"  them  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him." 
Our  resurrection  shall  be  a  fact  of  history,  because  His 
is  a  fact  of  history  ;  and  we  receive  it  as  such — partly 
from  the  reasonable  motive  of  reasonable  human  belief 
on  sufficient  evidence  for  practical  conviction. 

All  the  long  chain  of  manifold  witness  to  Christ  is 

'  John  xiv.  19. 


V.9.]  APPLIED   TO   THE  PESLRRECTION.  253 

consummated  and  crowned  when  it  passes  into  the 
inner  world  of  the  individual  life.  "  He  that  believeth 
on  the  Son  of  God,  hath  the  witness  in  him,"  i.e.,  in 
himself!^  Correlative  to  this,  stands  a  terrible  truth. 
He  of  whom  we  must  conceive  that  he  believes  not 
God,^  has  made  Him  a  liar — nothing  less ;  for  his  time 
for  receiving  Christ  came,  and  went,  and  with  this 
crisis  his  unbelief  stands  a  completed  present  act  as 
the  result  of  his  past;'  unbelief  stretching  over  to 
the  completed  witness  of  God  concerning  His  Son;* — 
human  unbelief  co-extensive  with  divine  witness. 

But  that  sweet  witness  in  a  man's  self  is  not  merely 
in  books  or  syllogisms.  It  is  the  creed  of  a  living  soul. 
It  lies  folded  within  a  man's  heart,  and  never  dies — 
part  of  the  great  principle  of  victory  ^  fought  and  won 
over  again  in  each  true  life® — until  the  man  dies,  and 
ceasing  then  only  because  he  sees  that  which  is  the 
object  of  its  witness. 

'  iv  eavT(p,  ver.  10. 

*  6  fiT]  iriffTevuv  ry  6e(p,  Ibid, 

*  oi  ireTriaTevKep.  Ibid. 

*  eU  rr}v  fiaprvpidv  •^i'  fj.efia.pTvpr]Kev  &  Gebs  irepl  tov  vioO  airoO.   Ibid. 

*  irdv  rb  yeyevvr]/j.^vov  iK  rod  Qeou,  viKq,  tov  k6uij.ov,  ver.  4. 

*  With  the  neuter  in  ver.  4,  contrast  the  individualising  masculine 
in  ver.  5i  ^ts  ianv  0  vikw¥. 


DISCOURSE    XIV. 

SIN  UNTO  DEATH. 
"There  is  a  sin  unto  death." — I  John  v.  I7t 

THE  Church  has  ever  spoken  of  seven  deadly  sins. 
Here  is  the  ugly  catalogue.  Pride,  covetousness, 
lust,  envy,  gluttony,  hatred,  sloth.  Many  of  us  pray 
often  "  from  fornication  and  all  other  deadly  sin.  Good 
Lord  deliver  us."  This  language  rightly  understood  is 
sound  and  true ;  yet,  without  careful  thought,  the  term 
may  lead  us  into  two  errors. 

1.  On  hearing  of  deadly  sin  we  are  apt  instinctively 
to  oppose  it  to  venial.  But  we  cannot  define  by  any 
quantitative  test  what  venial  sin  may  be  for  any  given 
soul.  To  do  that  we  must  know  the  complete  history 
of  each  soul ;  and  the  complete  genealogy,  conception, 
birth,  and  autobiography  of  each  sin.  Men  catch  at 
the  term  venial  because  they  love  to  minimise  a  thing 
so  tremendous  as  sin.  The  world  sides  with  the 
casuists  whom  it  satirises ;  and  speaks  of  a  "  white 
lie,"  of  a  foible,  of  an  inaccuracy,  when  "  the  *  white  lie ' 
may  be  that  of  St.  Peter,  the  foible  that  of  David,  and 
the  inaccuracy  that  of  Ananias  !  " 

2.  There  is  a  second  mistake  into  which  we  often 
fall  in  speaking  of  deadly  sin.  Our  imagination  nearly 
always  assumes  some  one  definite  outward  act ;  some 
single  individual  sin.     This  may  partly  be  due  to  a 


V.I 7-]  SIN  UNTO  DEATH.  255 

seemingly  slight  mistranslation  in  the  text.  It  should 
not  run  "  there  is  a  sin,"  but  "  there  is  sin  unto"  {e.g.^ 
in  the  direction  of  towards)  "  death." 

The  text  means  something  deeper  and  further-reach- 
ing than  any  single  sin,  deadly  though  it  may  be  justly 
called. 

The  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  learned  a  whole 
mystic  language  from  the  life  of  Jesus.  Death,  in  the 
great  Master's  vocabulary,  was  more  than  a  single 
action.  It  was  again  wholly  different  from  bodily  death 
by  the  visitation  of  God.  There  are  two  realms  for 
man's  soul  co-extensive  with  the  universe  and  with 
itself.  One  which  leads  towards  God  is  called  Life; 
one  which  leads  from  Him  is  called  Death.  There  is 
a  radiant  passage  by  which  the  soul  is  translated  from 
the  death  which  is  death  indeed,  to  the  life  which  is 
life  indeed.  There  is  another  passage  by  which  we 
pass  from  life  to  death ;  /.<?.,  fall  back  towards  spiritual 
(which  is  not  necessarily  eternal)  death. 

There  is  then  a  general  condition  and  contexture ; 
there  is  an  atmosphere  and  position  of  soul  in  which 
the  true  life  flickers,  and  is  on  the  way  to  death.  One 
who  visited  an  island  on  the  coast  of  Scotland  has  told 
how  he  found  in  a  valley  open  to  the  spray  of  the 
north-west  ocean  a  clump  of  fir  trees.  For  a  time 
they  grew  well,  until  they  became  high  enough  to  catch 
the  prevalent  blast.  They  were  still  standing,  but  had 
taken  a  fixed  set,  and  were  reddened  as  if  singed  by 
the  breath  of  fire.  The  island  glen  might  be  "  swept 
on  starry  nights  by  balms  of  spring;"  the  summer  sun 
as  it  sank  might  touch  the  poor  stems  with  a  momen- 
tary radiance.  The  trees  were  still  living,  but  only 
with  that  cortical  vitality  which  is  the  tree's  death  in 
life.     Their  doom  was  evident ;  they  could  have  but  a 


2S6  SIN  UNTO  DEATH. 

few  more  seasons.  If  the  traveller  cared  some  years 
hence  to  visit  that  islet  set  in  stormy  waters,  he  would 
find  the  firs  blanched  like  a  skeleton's  bones.  Nothing 
remained  for  them  but  the  sure  fall,  and  the  fated 
rottenness. 

The  analogy  indeed  is  not  complete.  The  tree  in 
such  surroundings  must  die;  it  can  make  for  itself 
no  new  condition  of  existence ;  it  can  hear  no  sweet 
question  on  the  breeze  that  washes  through  the  grove, 
"  why  will  ye  die  ?  "  It  cannot  look  upward — as  it  is 
scourged  by  the  driving  spray,  and  tormented  by  the 
fierce  wind — and  cry,  "  O  God  of  my  life,  give  me  life." 
It  has  no  will;  it  cannot  transplant  itself.  But  the 
human  tree  can  root  itself  in  a  happier  place.  Some 
divine  spring  may  clothe  it  with  green  again.  As  it 
was  passing  from  life  toward  death,  so  by  the  grace 
of  God  in  prayers  and  sacraments,  through  penitence 
and  faith,  it  may  pass  from  death  to  life. 

The  Church  then  is  not  wrong  when  she  speaks 
of  "  deadly  sin."  The  number  seven  is  not  merely  a 
mystic  fancy.  But  the  seven  "  deadly  sins  "  are  seven 
attributes  of  the  whole  character ;  seven  master-ideas  ; 
seven  general  conditions  of  a  human  soul  alienated 
from  God ;  seven  forms  of  aversion  from  true  life,  and 
of  reversion  to  true  death.  The  style  of  St.  John  has 
often  been  called  "  senile  ;"  it  certainly  has  the  oracular 
and  sententious  quietude  of  old  age  in  its  almost  lapidary 
repose.  Yet  a  terrible  light  sometimes  leaps  from  its 
simple  and  stately  lines.  Are  there  not  a  hundred 
hearts  among  us  who  know  that  as  years  pass  they 
are  drifting  further  and  further  from  Him  who  is  the 
Life  ?  Will  they  not  allow  that  St.  John  was  right 
when,  looking  round  the  range  of  the  Church,  he  asserted 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  "  sin  unto  death  ?  " 


V.  17.]  S/N  UNTO  DEATH.  257 

It  may  be  useful  to  take  that  one  of  the  seven  deadly 
sins  which  people  are  the  most  surprised  to  find  in 
the  list. 

How  and  why  is  sloth  deadly  sin  ? 

There  is  a  distinction  between  sloth  as  vice  and  sloth 
as  sin.  The  deadly  sin  of  sloth  often  exists  where  the 
vice  has  no  place.  The  sleepy  music  of  Thomson's 
"  Castle  of  Indolence  "  does  not  describe  the  slumber 
of  the  spiritual  sluggard.  Spiritual  sloth  is  want  of 
care  and  of  love  for  all  things  in  the  spiritual  order. 
Its  conceptions  are  shallow  and  hasty.  For  it  the 
Church  is  a  department  of  the  civil  service ;  her  wor- 
ship and  rites  are  submitted  to,  as  one  submits  to  a 
minor  surgical  operation.  Prayer  is  the  waste  of  a  few 
minutes  daily  in  concession  to  a  sentiment  which  it 
might  require  trouble  to  eradicate.  For  the  slothful 
Christian,  saints  are  incorrigibly  stupid ;  martyrs  in- 
corrigibly obstinate ;  clergymen  incorrigibly  profes- 
sional ;  missionaries  incorrigibly  restless ;  sisterhoods 
incorrigibly  tender;  white  lips  that  can  just  whisper 
Jesus  incorrigibly  awful.  For  the  slothful,  God,  Christ, 
death,  judgment  have  no  real  significance.  The  Atone- 
ment is  a  plank  far  away  to  be  clutched  by  dying 
fingers  in  the  article  of  death,  that  we  may  gurgle  out 
"  yes,"  when  asked  "  are  you  happy  "  ?  Hell  is  an 
ugly  word.  Heaven  a  beautiful  one  which  means  a  sky 
•or  an  Utopia.  Apathy  in  all  spiritual  thought,  languor 
in  every  work  of  God,  fear  of  injudicious  and  expensive 
zeal ;  secret  dislike  of  those  whose  fervour  puts  us  to 
shame,  and  a  miserable  adroitness  in  keeping  out  of 
their  way ;  such  are  the  signs  of  the  spirit  of  sloth. 
And  with  this  a  long  series  of  sins  of  omission — 
"slumbering  and  sleeping  while  the  Bridegroom 
tarries  " — "  unprofitable  servants." 


258  SJN  UNTO  DEATH. 

We  have  said  that  the  vice  of  sloth  is  generally 
distinct  from  the  sin.  There  is,  however,  one  day  of 
the  week  on  which  the  sin  is  apt  to  wear  the  drowsy 
features  of  the  vice — Sunday.  If  there  is  any  day  on 
which  we  might  be  supposed  to  do  something  towards 
the  spiritual  world  it  must  be  Sunday.  Yet  what  have 
any  of  us  done  for  God  on  any  Sunday  ?  Probably 
we  can  scarcely  tell.  We  slept  late,  we  lingered  over 
our  dressing,  we  never  thought  of  Holy  Communion ; 
after  Church  (if  we  went  there)  we  loitered  with 
friends ;  we  lounged  in  the  Park ;  we  whiled  away 
an  hour  at  lunch  ;  we  turned  over  a  novel,  with  secret 
dislike  of  the  benevolent  arrangements  which  give 
the  postman  some  rest.  Such  have  been  in  the  main 
our  past  Sundays.  Such  will  be  our  others,  more  or 
fewer,  till  the  arrival  of  a  date  written  in  a  calendar 
which  eye  hath  not  seen.  The  last  evening  of  the 
closing  year  is  called  by  an  old  poet,  "the  twilight 
of  two  years,  nor  past,  nor  next."  What  shall  we  call 
the  last  Sunday  of  our  year  of  life  ? 

Turn  to  the  first  chapter  of  St.  Mark.  Think  of 
that  day  of  our  Lord's  ministry  which  is  recorded  more 
full}'  than  any  other.  What  a  day  I  First  that  teaching 
in  the  Synagogue,  when  men  "  were  astonished,"  not 
at  His  volubility,  but  at  His  "  doctrine,"  drawn  from 
depths  of  thought.  Then  the  awful  meeting  with  the 
powers  of  the  world  unseen.  Next  the  utterance  of 
the  words  in  the  sick  room  which  renovated  the  fevered 
frame.  Afterwards  an  interval  for  the  simple  festival 
of  home.  And  then  we  see  the  sin,  the  sorrow,  the 
sufferings  crowded  at  the  door.  A  few  hours  more, 
while  yet  there  is  but  the  pale  dawn  before  the  meteor 
sunrise  of  Syria,  He  rises  from  sleep  to  plunge  His 
wearied  brow  in  the  dews  of  prayer.     And  finally  the 


V.I 7.]  SIN  UNTO  DEATH.  259 

intrusion  of  others  upon  that  sacred  solitude,  and  the 
work  of  preaching,  helping,  pitying,  healing  closes  in 
upon  Him  again  with  a  circle  which  is  of  steel,  because 
it  is  duty — of  delight,  because  it  is  love.  O  the  divine 
monotony  of  one  of  those  golden  days  of  God  upon 
earth  !  And  yet  we  are  offended  because  He  who  is 
the  same  for  ever,  sends  from  heaven  that  message 
with  its  terrible  plainness — "  because  thou  art  lukewarm, 
I  will  spue  thee  out  of  my  mouth,"  We  are  angry  that 
the  Church  classes  sloth  as  deadly  sin,  when  the 
Church's  Master  has  said — "  thou  wicked  and  slothftU 
servant." 


DISCOURSE    XV. 

THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM  WHICH  HAS  NO 
EXCEPTION. 

"All  unrighteousness  is  sin :  and  there  is  a  sin  not  unto  death."^ 
I  John  v.  17. 

LET  US  begin  by  detaching  awhile  from  its  context 
this  oracular  utterance :  "  all  unrighteousness 
is  sin."     Is  this  true  universally,  or  is  it  not  ? 

A  clear  consistent  answer  is  necessar}',  because  a 
strange  form  of  the  doctrine  of  indulgences  (long 
whispered  in  the  ears)  has  lately  been  proclaimed  from 
the  housetops,  with  a  considerable  measure  of  apparent 
acceptance. 

Here  is  the  singular  dispensation  from  St.  John's 
rigorous  canon  to  which  we  refer. 

Three  such  indulgences  have  been  accorded  at  various 
times  to  certain  favoured  classes  or  persons,  (i)  "The 
moral  law  does  not  exist  for  the  elect."  This  was  the 
doctrine  of  certain  Gnostics  in  St.  John's  day ;  of  certain 
fanatics  in  every  age,  (2)  "Things  absolutely  for- 
bidden to  the  mass  of  mankind,  are  allowable  for  people 
of  commanding  rank."  Accommodating  Prelates,  and 
accommodating  Reformers  have  left  the  burden  of 
defending  these  ignoble  concessions  to  future  genera- 
tions. (3)  A  yet  baser  dispensation  has  been  freely 
given    by    very   vulgar    casuists.      "The    chosen   of 


V.  17.]  THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM.  261 

Fortune  " — the  men  at  whose  magic  touch  every  stock 
seems  to  rise — may  be  allowed  unusual  fcmii  of  en- 
joying the  unusual  success  which  has  crowned  their 
career. 

Such  are,  or  such  were,  the  dispensations  from  St. 
John's  canon  permitted  to  themselves,  or  to  others, 
by  the  elect  of  Heaven,^*  by  the  elect  of  station,  and 
by  the  elect  oi  foiiune. 

Another  election  hath  obtained  the  perilous  exception 
now — the  election  of  genius.  Those  who  endow  the 
world  with  music,  with  art,  with  romance,  with  poetry, 
are  entitled  to  the  reversion.  "  All  unrighteousness  is 
sin  " — except  for  them.  (l)  The  indulgence  is  no  longer 
valid  for  those  who  effect  intimacy  with  heaven  (partly 
perhaps  because  it  is  suspected  that  there  is  no 
heaven  to  be  intimate  with).  (2)  The  indulgence  is 
not  extended  to  the  men  who  apparently  rule  over 
nations,  since  it  has  been  discovered  that  nations  rule 
over  them.  {3)  It  is  not  accorded  to  the  constructors 
of  fortunes  ;  they  are  too  many,  and  too  uninteresting, 
though  possibly  figures  could  be  conceived  almost 
capable  of  buying  it.  But  (generally  speaking)  men 
of  these  three  classes  must  pace  along  the  dust  of  the 
narrow  road  by  the  signpost  of  the  law,  if  they  would 
escape  the  censure  of  society. 

For  genius  alone  there  is  no  such  inconvenient 
restriction.  Many  men,  of  course,  deliberately  prefer 
the  "primrose  path,"  but  they  can  no  more  avoid 
indignant  hisses  by  the  way  than  they  can  extinguish 
the  "  everlasting  bonfire "  at  the  awful  close  of  their 
journey.  With  the  man  of  genius  it  seems  that  it  is 
otherwise.  He  shall  "walk  in  the  ways  of  his  heart,  and 
in  the  sight  of  his  eyes ; "  but,  "  for  all  these  things  " 
the  tribunals  of  certain  schools  of  a  delicate  criticism 


26«  THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM 

(delicate  criticism  can  be  so  indelicate  !)  will  never  allow 
him  "to  be  brought  into  judgment."  Some  literary 
oracles,  biographers,  or  reviewers,  are  not  content  to 
keep  a  reverential  silence,  and  to  murmur  a  secret  prayer. 
They  will  drag  into  light  the  saddest,  the  meanest,  the 
most  selfish  doings  of  genius.  Not  the  least  service 
to  his  generation,  and  to  English  literature,  of  the  true 
poet  and  critic  lately  taken  from  us,^  was  the  superb 
scorn,  the  exquisite  wit,  with  which  his  indignant 
purity  transfixed  such  doctrines.  A  strange  winged 
thing,  no  doubt,  genius  sometimes  is  ;  alternately  beat- 
ing the  abyss  with  splendid  pinions,  and  eating  dust 
which  is  the  "serpent's  meat."  But  for  all  that,  we 
cannot  see  with  the  critic  when  he  tries  to  prove 
that  the  reptile's  crawling  is  part  of  the  angel's  flight ; 
and  the  dust  on  which  he  grovels  one  with  the  infinite 
purity  of  the  azure  distances. 

The  arguments  of  the  apologists  for  moral  eccentricity 
of  genius  may  be  thus  summed  up : — The  man  of 
genius  bestows  upon  humanity  gifts  which  are  on  a 
different  line  from  any  other.  He  enriches  it  on  the 
side  where  it  is  poorest ;  the  side  of  the  Ideal.  But 
the  very  temperament  in  virtue  of  which  a  man  is 
capable  of  such  transcendent  work  makes  him  pas- 
sionate and  capricious.  To  be  imaginative  is  to  be 
exceptional ;  and  these  exceptional  beings  live  for  man- 
kind rather  than  for  themselves.  When  their  conduct 
comes  to  be  discussed,  the  only  question  is  whether 
that  conduct  was  adapted  to  forward  the  superb  self- 
development  which  is  of  such  inestimable  value  to  the 
world.  If  the  gratification  of  any  desire  was  necessary 
for  that  self-development,  genius  itself  being  the  judge, 

'  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold. 


V.  i;.]  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION.  263 

the  cause  is  ended.  In  winning  that  gratification  hearts 
may  be  broken,  souls  defiled,  lives  wrecked.  The 
daintiest  songs  of  the  man  of  genius  may  rise  to  the 
accompaniment  of  domestic  sob"?,  and  the  music  which 
he  seems  to  warble  at  the  gates  of  heaven  may  be 
trilled  over  the  white  upturned  face  of  one  who  has  died 
in  misery.  What  matter !  Morality  is  so  icy,  and 
so  intolerant ;  its  doctrines  have  the  ungentlemanlike 
rigour  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  Genius  breaks  hearts 
with  such  supreme  gracefulness,  such  perfect  wit,  that 
they  are  arrant  Philistines  who  refuse  to  smile. 

We  who  have  the  text  full  in  our  mind  answer  all 
this  in  the  words  of  the  old  man  of  Ephesus.  For 
all  that  angel-softness  which  he  learned  from  the 
heart  of  Christ,  his  voice  is  as  strong  as  it  is  sweet 
and  calm.  Over  all  the  storm  of  passion,  over  all  the 
babble  of  successive  sophistries,  clear  and  eternal  it 
rings  out — "a//  unrighteousness  is  sin."  To  which 
the  apologist,  little  abashed,  replies — "  of  course  we 
all  know  that;  quite  true  as  a  general  rule,  but  then 
men  of  genius  have  bought  a  splendid  dispensation 
by  paying  a  splendid  price,  and  so  their  inconsistencies 
are  not  sin." 

There  are  two  assumptions  at  the  root  of  this 
apology  for  the  aberrations  of  genius  which  should 
be  examined.  (l)  The  temperament  of  men  of  genius 
is  held  to  constitute  an  excuse  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal.  Such  men  indeed  are  sometimes  not  slow 
to  put  forward  this  plea  for  themselves.  No  doubt 
there  are  trials  peculiar  to  every  temperament.  Those 
of  men  of  genius  are  probably  very  great.  They  are 
children  of  the  sunshine  and  of  the  storm  ;  the  grey 
monotony  of  ordinary  life  is  distasteful  to  them.  Things 
rhich   others   find   it   easy   to   accept   convulse   their 


264  THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM 

sensitive  organisation.  Many  can  produce  their  finest 
works  only  on  condition  of  being  sheltered  where  no 
bills  shall  find  their  way  by  the  post ;  where  no  sound, 
not  even  the  crowing  of  cocks,  shall  break  the  haunted 
silence.  If  the  letter  comes  in  one  case,  and  if  the 
cock  crows  in  the  other,  the  first  may  possibly  never 
be  remembered,  but  the  second  is  never  forgotten. 

For  this,  as  for  every  other  form  of  human  temper- 
ament— that  of  the  dunce,  as  well  as  of  the  genius — 
allowance  must  in  truth  be  made.  In  that  one  of  the 
lives  of  the  English  Poets,  where  the  great  moralist 
has  gone  nearest  to  making  concessions  to  this  fallacy 
of  temperament,  he  utters  this  just  warning.  "  No 
wise  man  will  easily  presume  to  say,  had  I  been  in 
Savage's  condition  I  should  have  lived  better  than 
Savage."  But  we  must  not  bring  in  the  temperament 
of  the  man  of  genius  as  the  standard  of  his  conduct, 
unless  we  are  prepared  to  admit  the  same  standard 
in  every  other  case.  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 
For  each,  conscience  is  of  the  same  texture,  law  of 
the  same  material.  As  all  have  the  same  cross  of 
infinite  mercy,  the  same  judgment  of  perfect  impar- 
tiality, so  have  they  the  same  law  of  inexorable  duty. 

(2)  The  necessary  disorder  and  feverishness  of  high 
literary  and  artistic  inspiration  is  a  second  postulate 
of  the  pleas  to  which  I  refer.  But,  is  it  true  that 
disorder  creates  inspiration  ;  or  is  a  condition  of  it  ? 

All  great  work  is  ordered  work  ;  and  in  producing 
it  the  faculties  must  be  exercised  harmoniously  and 
with  order.  True  inspiration,  therefore,  should  not  be 
caricatured  into  a  flushed  and  dishevelled  thing. 
Labour  always  precedes  it.  It  has  been  prepared  for 
by  education.  And  that  'education  would  have  been 
painful  but  for  the  glorious  efflorescence  of  materials 


V.  17.  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION.  265 

collected   and   assimilated,   which  is  the  compensation 
for  any   toil.     The  very  dissatisfaction  with   its  own 
performances,    the    result    of    the     lofty  ideal  which 
is   inseparable    from    genius,    is   at    once    a    stimulus 
and  a  balm.      The  man  of  genius  apparently  writes, 
or  paints,  as  the  birds  sing,  or  as  the  spring  colours 
the    flowers ;  but  his  subject  has  long   possessed  his 
mind,    and    the    inspiration    is    the   child    of    thought 
and  of  ordered  labour.     Destroying  the  peace  of  one's 
own    family  or   of  another's,    being   flushed  with  the 
preoccupation    of  guilty   passion,   will   not    accelerate, 
but  retard  the  advent  of  those  happy  moments  which 
are   not   without   reason    called    creative.     Thus,    the 
inspiration    of   genius    is    akin    to    the   inspiration    of 
prophecy.     The    prophet    tutored  himself  by  a  fitting 
education.     He  became  assimilated  to  the  noble  things 
in    the    future    which    he    foresaw.       Isaiah's     heart 
grew    royal ;  his    style   wore    the   majesty  of  a   king, 
before  he  sang  the  King  of  sorrow  with  His  infinite 
pathos,  and  the  King  of  righteousness  with  His  infinite 
glory.     Many  prophets  attuned  their  spirits  by  listen- 
ing to  such  music  as  lulls,  not  inflames  passion.     Others 
walked    where    "  beauty  born    of  murmuring    sound " 
might   pass   into    their   strain.     Think   of  Ezekiel  by 
the  river   of  Chebar,  with    the    soft   sweep  of  waters 
in   his   ear,   and    their   cool    breath    upon    his    cheek. 
Think  of  St.  John  with  the  shaft  of  light  from  heaven's 
opened  door  upon  his  upturned   brow,  and  the  boom 
of  the  iEgean  upon  the  rocks  of  Patmos  around  him. 
"The    note  of  the  heathen  seer"    (said    the   greatest 
preacher   of  the  Greek  Church)   "  is   to  be  contorted, 
constrained,   excited,   like   a    maniac ;   the   note   of  a 
prophet   is  to   be  wakeful,   self-possessed,  nobly  self- 
conscious."     We  may  apply  this  test  to  the  distinction 


266  THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM. 

between    genius,    and    the    dissipated    affectation    of 
genius. 

Let  us  then  refuse  our  assent  to  a  doctrine  of 
indulgences  applied  to  genius  on  the  ground  of  temper- 
ament or  of  literary  and  artistic  inspiration.  "  Why,"  we 
are  often  asked,  "  why  force  your  narrow  judgment  upon 
an  angry  or  a  laughing  world  ?  "  What  have  you  to  do 
with  the  conduct  of  gifted  men  ?  Genius  means  exube- 
rant. Why  "  blame  the  Niagara  River  "  because  it  will 
not  assume  the  pace  and  manner  of  "  a  Dutch  canal  "  ? 
Never  indeed  should  we  force  that  judgment  upon  any, 
unless  they  force  it  upon  us.  Let  us  avoid  as  far  as 
we  may  posthumous  gossip  over  the  grave  of  genius. 
It  is  an  unwholesome  curiosity  which  rewards  the  black- 
bird for  that  bubbling  song  of  ecstasy  in  the  thicket, 
by  gloating  upon  the  ugly  worm  which  he  swallows 
greedily  after  the  shower.  The  pen  or  pencil  has 
dropped  from  the  cold  fingers.  After  all  its  thought 
and  sin,  after  all  its  toil  and  agony,  the  soul  is  with 
its  Judge.  Let  the  painter  of  the  lovely  picture,  the 
writer  of  the  deathless  words,  be  for  us  like  the  priest. 
The  washing  of  regeneration  is  no  less  wrought  through 
the  unworthy  minister ;  the  precious  gift  is  no  less  con- 
veyed when  a  polluted  hand  has  broken  the  bread  and 
blessed  the  cup.  But  if  we  are  forced  to  speak,  let  us 
refuse  to  accept  an  ex  post  facto  morality  invented  to 
excuse  a  worthless  absolution.  Especially  so  when 
the  most  sacred  of  all  rights  is  concerned.  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  a  man  of  genius  dissents  from  the 
received  standard  of  conduct.  He  cannot  make  fugi- 
tive inclination  the  only  principle  of  a  connection  which 
he  promised  to  recognise  as  paramount.  A  passage  in 
the  Psalms,'  has  been  called  "The  catechism  of  Heaven." 
'  Sec  Ps.  XV.     Gf.  Ps.  xxiv.  3-7. 


".  17.]  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION.  267 

"The  catechism  of  Fame"  differs  from  "the  catechism 
of  Heaven."  "  Who  shall  ascend  unto  the  hill  of 
Fame?"  "He  that  possesses  genius."  "Who  shall 
ascend  unto  the  hill  of  the  Lord  ? "  "  He  that  hath 
clean  hands,  and  a  pure  heart ;  He  that  hath  sworn 
to  his  neighbour  and  disappointeth  him  not "  (or  disap- 
pointeth  A<?r  not)  "though  it  were  to  his  own  hindrance  " 
— aye,  to  the  hindrance  of  his  self-development.  Strange 
that  the  rough  Hebrew  should  still  have  to  teach  us 
chivalry  as  well  as  religion  !  In  St.  John's  Epistle  we 
find  the  two  great  axioms  about  sin,  in  its  two  essential 
aspects.  "  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law  :  "  there 
is  its  aspect  chiefly  Godward.  "  All  unrighteousness  " 
(mainly  injustice,  denial  of  the  rights  of  others)  "is 
sin  : "  there  is  its  aspect  chiefly  manward. 

Yes,  the  principle  of  the  text  is  rigid,  inexorable, 
eternal.  Nothing  can  make  its  way  out  of  those 
terrible  meshes.  It  is  without  favour,  without  excep- 
tion. It  gives  no  dispensation,  and  proclaims  no 
indulgences,  to  the  man  of  genius,  or  to  any  other. 
If  it  were  otherwise,  the  righteous  God,  the  Author  of 
creation  and  redemption,  would  be  dethroned.  And 
that  is  a  graver  thing  than  to  dethrone  even  the  author 
of  "  Queen  Mab,"  and  of  "  The  Epipsychidion."  Here 
is  the  jurisprudence  of  the  "great  white  Throne" 
summed  up  in  four  words  :  "  all  unrighteousness  is  sin." 

So  far,  in  the  last  discourse,  and  in  this,  we  have 
ventured  to  isolate  these  two  great  principles  from 
their  context.  But  this  process  is  always  attended 
with  peculiar  loss  in  St.  John's  writings.  And  as  some 
may  think  perhaps  that  the  promise  ^  is  falsified  we 
must  here  run  the  risk  of  bringing  in  another  thread 

'  I  John  V.  15. 


268  THE   TERRIBLE   TRUISM 

of  thought.  Yet  indeed  the  whole  paragraph*  has 
its  source  in  an  intense  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
specially  as  exercised  in  intercessory  prayer. 

(i)  The  efficacy  of  prayer.^  This  is  the  very  sign 
of  contrast  with,  of  opposition  to,  the  modern  spirit, 
which  is  the  negation  o{ prayer. 

"What  is  the  real  value  of  prayer  ? 

Very  little,  says  the  modern  spirit.  Prayer  is  the 
stimulant,  the  Dutch  courage  of  the  moral  world. 
Prayer  is  a  power,  not  because  it  is  efficacious,  but 
because  it  is  believed  to  be  so. 

A  modern  Rabbi,  with  nothing  of  his  Judaism  left  but 
a  rabid  antipathy  to  the  Founder  of  the  Church,  guided 
by  Spinoza  and  Kant,  has  turned  fiercely  upon  the  Lord's 
prayer.'  He  takes  those  petitions  which  stand  alone 
among  the  liturgies  of  earth  in  being  capable  of  being 
translated  into  every  language.  He  cuts  off  one  pearl 
after  another  from  the  string.  Take  one  specimen. 
"  Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven."  Heaven  !  the  very 
name  has  a  breath  of  magic,  a  suggestion  of  beauty,  of 
grandeur,  of  purity  in  it.  It  moves  us  as  nothing  else 
can.  We  instinctively  lift  our  heads;  the  brow  grows 
proud  of  that  splendid  home,  and  the  eye  is  wetted  with 
a  tear  and  lighted  with  a  ray,  as  it  looks  into  those 
depths  of  golden  sunset  which  are  full  for  the  young  of 
the  radiant  mystery  of  life,  for  the  old  of  the  pathetic 
mystery  of  death.*  Yes,  but  for  modern  science  Heaven 
means  air,  or  atmosphere,  and  the  address  itself  is  con- 


»  I  John  V.  14, 18. 

"  Vv.  14, 15. 

^  Historical  and  Critical  Commentary  on  Leviticus,  By  M,  M. 
Kalisch.     Part  I.     Theology  of  the  Past  and  Future,  431,  438. 

*  This  is  denied  by  De  Wette  {Ueber  die  Religion,  Vorlesungen, 
106). 


V.  17.]  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION,  269 

tradictory.  "  Forgive  us."  But  surely  the  guilt  can- 
not be  forgiven,  except  by  the  person  against  whom 
it  is  committed.  There  is  no  other  forgiveness.  A 
mother  (whose  daughter  went  out  upon  the  cruel 
London  streets)  carried  into  execution  a  thought  be- 
stowed upon  her  by  the  inexhaustible  ingenuity  of  love. 
The  poor  woman  got  her  own  photograph  taken,  and 
a  friend  managed  to  have  copies  of  it  hung  in  several 
halls  and  haunts  of  infamy  with  these  words  clearly 
written  below — "come  home,  I  forgive  you."  The 
tender  subtlety  of  love  was  successful  at  last ;  and  the 
poor  haggard  outcast's  face  was  touched  by  her  mother's 
lips.  "  But  the  heart  of  God,"  says  this  enemy  of  prayer, 
"is  not  as  a  woman's  heart."  (Pardon  the  words,  O 
loving  Father !  Thou  who  hast  said  "  Yea,  she  may 
forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee."  Pardon,  O  pierced 
Human  Love !  who  hast  graven  the  name  of  every 
soul  on  the  palms  of  Thy  hands  with  the  nails  of  the 
crucifixion.)  Repentance  subjectively  seems  a  reality 
when  mother  and  child  meet  with  a  burst  of  passionate 
tears,  and  the  polluted  brow  feels  purified  by  their 
molten  downfall ;  but  repentance  objectively  is  seen  to 
be  an  absurdity  by  every  one  who  grasps  the  con- 
ception of  law.  The  penitential  Psalms  may  be  the 
lyrics  of  repentance,  the  Gospel  for  the  third  Sunday 
after  Trinity  its  idyll,  the  cross  its  symbol,  the  wounds 
of  Christ  its  theology  and  inspiration.  But  the  course 
of  Nature,  the  hard  logic  of  life  is  its  refutation — the 
flames  that  burn,  the  waves  that  drown,  the  machine 
that  crushes,  the  society  that  condemns,  and  that  neither 
can,  nor  will  forgive. 

Enough,  and  more  than  enough  of  this.  The  monster 
of  ignorance  who  has  never  learnt  a  prayer,  has  hitherto 
been  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  saddest  of  sights.     But 


270  THE   TERRIBLE  TRUISM 

there  is  something  sadder — the  monster  of  over-cultiva- 
tion, the  wreck  of  schools,  the  priggish  fanatic  of  god- 
lessness.  Alas !  for  the  nature  which  has  become  like 
a  plant  artificially  trained  and  twisted  to  turn  away  from 
the  light.  Alas  !  for  the  heart  which  has  hardened  itself 
into  stone  until  it  cannot  beat  faster,  or  soar  higher, 
even  when  men  are  saying  with  happy  enthusiasm, 
or  when  the  organ  is  lifting  upward  to  the  heaven  of 
heavens  the  cry  which  is  at  once  the  creed  of  an  ever- 
lasting dogma  and  the  hymn  of  a  triumphant  hope — 
"  with  Thee  is  the  well  of  Life,  and  in  Thy  light  shall 
we  see  light"  Now  having  heard  the  answer  of  the 
modern  spirit  to  the  question  "  what  is  the  real  value 
of  prayer  ? "  think  of  the  answer  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Church  as  given  by  St.  John  in  this  paragraph.  That 
answer  is  not  drawn  out  in  a  syllogism.  St.  John 
appeals  to  our  consciousness  of  a  divine  life.  "  That  ye 
may  know  that  ye  have  eternal  hfe."  This  knowledge 
issues  in  confidence,  i.e.,  literally  the  sweet  possibility 
of  saying  out  all  to  God.  And  this  confidence  is  never 
disappointed  for  any  believing  child  of  God.  "  If  we 
know  that  He  hear  us,  we  know  that  we  have  the 
petitions  that  we  desired  of  Him."  ^ 

On  the  1 6th  verse  we  need  only  say,  that  the  great- 
ness of  our  brother's  spiritual  need  does  not  cease  to 
be  a  title  to  our  sympathy.  St.  John  is  not  speaking 
of  all  requests,  but  of  the  fulness  of  brotherly  inter- 
cession. 

One  question  and  one  warning  in  conclusion  ;  and  that 
question  is  this.  Do  we  take  part  in  this  great  ministry 
of  love  ?     Is  our  voice  heard  in  the  full  music  of  the 

'  The  form  of  expression  indicates  not  necessarily  the  very  things 
askcc',  but  tl,e  spiritual  essence  and  substance. 


V.  17.]  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION.  271 

prayers  of  intercession  that  are  ever  going  up  to  the 
Throne,  and  bringing  down  the  gift  of  life  ?  Do  we 
pray  for  others  ? 

In  one  sense  all  who  know  true  affection  and  the 
sweetness  of  true  prayer  do  pray  for  others.  We  have 
never  loved  with  supreme  affection  any  for  whom  we 
have  not  interceded,  whose  names  we  have  not  bap- 
tized in  the  fountain  of  prayer.  Prayer  takes  up  a 
tablet  from  the  hand  of  love  written  over  with  names  ; 
that  tablet  death  itself  can  only  break  when  the  heart 
has  turned  Sadducee. 

Jesus  (we  sometimes  think)  gives  one  strange  proof 
of  the  love  which  yet  passeth  knowledge.  "Now  Jesus 
loved  Martha  and  her  sister  and  Lazarus ; "  "  when  He 
had  heard  therefore"  [O  that  strange  therefore  !]  "that 
Lazarus  was  sick,  He  abode  two  days  still  in  the  same 
place  where  He  was."  Ah !  sometimes  not  two  days, 
but  two  years,  and  sometimes  evermore,  He  seems  to 
remain.  When  the  income  dwindles  with  the  dwindling 
span  of  life ;  when  the  best  beloved  must  leave  us  for 
many  years,  and  carries  away  our  sunshine  with  him ; 
when  the  life  of  a  husband  is  in  danger — then  we  pray ; 
"  O  Father,  for  Jesu's  sake  spare  that  precious  life ; 
enable  me  to  provide  for  these  helpless  ones ;  bless 
these  children  in  their  going  out  and  coming  in,  and  let 
me  see  them  once  again  before  the  night  cometh,  and 
my  hands  are  folded  for  the  long  rest."  Yes,  but  have 
we  prayed  at  our  Communion  "  because  of  that  Holy 
Sacrament  in  it,  and  with  it,"  that  He  would  give  them 
the  grace  which  they  need — the  life  which  shall  save 
them  from  sin  unto  death  ?  Round  us,  close  to  us  in 
our  homes,  there  are  cold  hands,  hearts  that  beat  feebly. 
Let  us  fulfil  St.  John's  teaching,  by  praying  to  Him 
who  is  the  life  that  He  would  chafe  those  cold  hands 


27*  THE    TERRIBLE   TRUISM 

with  His  hand  of  love,  and  quicken  those  dying  hearts 
by  contact  with  that  wounded  heart  which  is  a  heart 
of  fire. 

NOTES 
Ch.  V.  3-17. 

Ver.  3.  This  section  should  begin  with  the  words  *'  And 
His  commandments  are  not  heavy" — and  should  not  be 
separated  from  what  follows,  because  they  give  one  reason 
of  the  victory  whereof  he  proceeds  to  speak.  "  His  command- 
ments are  not  heavy,  for  all  that  is  born  of  God  conquereth 
the  world."  What  a  picture  of  the  sweetness  of  a  life  of  ser- 
vice !  What  a  gentle  smile  must  have  been  on  the  old  man's 
face  as  he  said,  "  His  commandments  are  not  grievous  !  " 

Vers.  7,  8.  This  passage  with  its  apparent  obscurity,  and 
famous  interpolation,  demands  some  additional  notice.  As 
to  criticism  and  inter;pretation. 

(i)  Critically.     Since  the  publication  of  J.  J.  Griesbach's 
celebrated  -wovk  {Diatribe  in  locum  i  John  v.  7,  8,  Tom.  ii., 
N.T.     Halle:     1806),    first    German,    and    latterly  English, 
opinion  has  become  absolutely  unanimous  in  agreeing  with 
Griesbach   that    "  the  words  included  between  brackets  are 
spurious,  and  should  therefore  be  eliminated  from  the  Sacred 
Text."     Even  the  famous  Roman  Catholic  scholar,  Scholts, 
in   his  great  critical  edition  of  the  New  Testament,    in   two 
volumes  (Bonn :   1836),  boldly  dropped  the  disputed  passage 
from  the  text.      The   interpolated  passage  has  certainly  no 
support    in   any   uncial   manuscript,    or    ancient   version,   or 
Greek  Father  of  the  four  first  centuries.      (2)  As  to  inter- 
pretation, the  faith  has  lost  nothing  by  the  honesty  of  her 
wisest   defenders.      The   whole   of    the   genuine   passage   is 
intensely  Trinitarian.     The  interpolation  is   nothing  but  an 
exposition  written  into  the  text.     The  three  genuine  witnesses 
do  really  point  to  the  Three  Witnesses  in  Heaven.     Bengel's 
saying  expresses  the  permanent  feeling  of  Christendom,  which 
no  criticism  can  do  away  with  :  "  This  trine  array  of  witnesses 
on  earth  is  supported  by,  and  has  above  and  beneath  it  the 
Trinity,   which   is  Heavenly,  archetypal,   fundamental,  ever- 
lasting."    The  whole  context  recognizes  three  special  works 
of  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Blessed  Trinity.     "This  is  the 


▼.  17-]  WHICH  HAS  NO  EXCEPTION.  273 

witness  of  God,"  i.e.  of  the  Father  (ver.  9)  v  "this  is  He  that 
came  by  water  and  blood,"  i.e.  the  Son  (ver.  6);  **  it  is  the 
Spirit  that  witnesseth,"  i.e.  the  Holy  Ghost  [ibid.). 

A  fuller  examination  of  this  passage,  from  a  polemical  point 
of  view,"  will  be  found  in  the  third  of  the  introductory  discourses. 
It  will  be  well,  however,  to  indicate  here  the  immediate  con- 
troversial reference  in  the  Spirit,  the  water,  and  the  blood. 
There  is  abundant  proof  that  the  popular  heretical  philosophy 
of  Asia  Minor  struck  Christianity  precisely  in  three  vital 
places.     It  denied — 

(i)  The  Incarnation — consequently 

(2)  The  Redemption — consequently 

(3)  The  Sacraments. 

But  the  mention  of  the  water  and  the  blood  in  connection 
•with  the  Person  of  the  Son  Incarnate  and  Crucified  established 
exactly  these  three  points.  Narrated  as  it  was  by  an  eye- 
witness, it  established:— 

(i)  The  reality  of  the  Incarnation — consequently 

(2)  The  reality  of  Redemption — for  the  blood  of  Jesus 
cleanses  from  all  sin  (i  John  i.  7) — consequently 

(3)  The  reality  of  Sacraments. 

We  have  articulate  evidence  of  the  denial  of  the  two  sacra- 
ments by  the  Docetic  idealists  of  Asia  Minor.  The  Philoso- 
^htt^nejia  tells  us  of  the  view  of  baptism  held  by  one  of  their 
principal  sects.  "According  to  them  the  promise  of  the 
laver  of  regeneration  is  nothing  more  than  the  introduction 
into  the  *  unfading  pleasure  '  of  him  that  is  washed  (as  they 
say)  with  living  water,  and  anointed  with  '  chrism  that 
speaketh  not.*"^  The  testimony  of  Ignatius  is  express  as 
to  the  other  sacrament.  "  From  Eucharist  and  prayer  they 
abstain  on  account  of  not  confessing  that  the  Eucharist  is 
flesh  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  which  suffered  for  our  sins." 
■ — {£J>.  ad  Stnyrn.  vii.) 

'  'H  7&/)  ^jra77eXifo  rcO  XovrpoO  ovk  fiXXij  rfj  kari  Kar  airovi,  1j  rb 
elcrayayuv  eli  ttjv  dfji.dpavTov  ijdov^  rhv  XovS/Mevov  Kar  aiiro^i  ^wvri 
aban  KoX  xpion^vov  aKak'f  xP^afxari, — (JPhilosoph.,  p.  140,  de  Naassenis.) 


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NOTES,  27S 

NOTES. 
Ch.  V.  18-21. 

Ver.  18,  19,  20.  Three  seals  are  affixed  to  the  close  of  this 
Epistle — three  postulates  of  the  spiritual  reason ;  three  primary 
canons  of  spiritual  perception  and  knowledge.  Each  is  marked 
by  the  emphatic  "  we  know,"  which  is  stamped  at  the  opening 
of  its  first  line.  The  first  "  we  know,"  is  of  a  sense  of  purity 
made  possible  to  the  Christian  through  the  keeping  by  Him 
Who  is  the  one  Begotten  of  God.  The  evil  one  cannot  touch  him 
with  the  contaminating  touch  which  implies  connection.  The 
second  "we  know"  involves  a  sense  oi  privilege ;  the  true 
conviction  that  by  God's  power,  and  love,  we  are  brought  into 
a  sphere  of  light,  out  of  the  darkness  in  which  a  sinful  world 
has  become  as  if  cradled  on  the  lap  of  the  evil  one.  The  third 
"we  know  "  is  the  deep  consciousness  of  the  very  Presence 
of  the  Son  of  God  in  and  with  His  Church.  And  with  this 
comes  all  the  inner  life — supremely  a  new  way  of  looking  at 
things,  a  new  possibility  of  thought,  a  new  cast  of  thought 
and  sentiment,  "understanding"  (Stai/oia).  Words  denoting 
intellectual  faculties  and  processes  are  rare  in  St.  John. 
This  word  is  used  in  the  sense  just  given  in  Plat.,  Rep.,  511, 
and  Arist.,  Poet.,  vi.  (in  the  last,  however,  rather  of  the  senti- 
ment of  the  piece  than  of  the  author),  "  He  hath  gjven  us 
understanding  that  we  know  continuously  the  very  [God]." 
And  in  "  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  [this  is  the  very  God  and 
eternal  life]  we  are  in  the  very  God."  This  interpretation 
of  the  passage  is  supported  by  the  position  of  the  pronoun 
which  cannot  be  referred  naturally  to  any  subject  but  Jesus 
Christ.  Waterland  quotes  Irenaeus.  "No  man  can  know 
God  unless  God  has  taught  him  ;  that  is  to  say,  that  without 
God,  God  cannot  be  known."* 

Ver.  21.  The  Epistle  closes  with  a  short,  sternly  affectionate 
exhortation.  "  Children,  guard  yourselves  "  (the  aorist impera- 
tive of  immediate  final  decision)  '.'from  the  idols."  These 
words  are  natural  in  the  atmosphere  of  Ephesus  (Acts  xix. 
26,  27).  The  Author  of  the  Apocalypse  has  a  like  hatred 
of  idols.    (Apoc.  ii.  14,  15,  ix.  20,  xx.  1-8,  xxii.  15.) 

'  Moyer  Lecture  vi. 


,276  NOTES. 

It  would  appear  that  the  Gnostics  allowed  people  to  eat 
freely  things  sacrificed  to  idols.  Modem,  like  ancient  un- 
belief, has  sometimes  attributed  to  St.  John  a  determination 
to  exalt  the  Master  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  man  to  an  equality 
with  God.  But  this  is  morally  inconsistent  with  the  Apostle's 
unaffected  shrinking  from  idolatry  in  every  form.  (See 
S;peaker*s  Commentary ^  N.  71,  iv.,  347). 


THE  SECOND  EPISTLE  OF  ST,  JOHN, 


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DISCOURSE  XVI. 

THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER. 

"The  elder  unto  the  elect  lady  and  her  children,  whom  I  love  in  the 
truth  .  ,  .  Grace  be  with  you,  mercy  and  peace,  from  God  the  Father 
and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  in  truth  and 
love." — 2  John,  3. 

OF  old  God  addressed  men  in  tones  that,  were  so  to 
speak,  distant.  Sometimes  He  spoke  with  the 
stern  precision  of  law  or  ritual ;  sometimes  in  the  dark 
and  lofty  utterances  of  prophets ;  sometimes  through 
the  subtle  voices  of  history,  which  lend  themselves  to 
different  interpretations.  But  in  the  New  Testament  He 
whom  no  man  hath  seen  at  any  time,  "  interpreted," ' 
Himself  with  a  sweet  familiarity.  It  is  of  a  piece  with 
the  dispensation  of  condescendence,  that  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  should  come  to  us  in  such 
large  measure  through  epistles.  For  a  letter  is  just  the 
result  of  taking  up  one's  pen  to  converse  with  one  who 
is  absent,  a  familiar  talk  with  a  friend. 

Of  the  epistles  in  our  New  Testament,  a  few  are 
addressed  to  individuals.  The  effect  of  three  of  these 
letters  upon  the  Church,  and  even  upon  the  world,  has 
been  great.  The  Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus, 
according  to  the  most  prevalent  interpretation  of  them, 
have  been  felt  in  the  outward  organization  of  the 
Church,     The    Epistle  to    Philemon,    with   its    eager 

'  John  i.  la 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER.     283 

tenderness,  its  softness  as  of  a  woman's  heart,  its 
chivalrous  courtesy,  has  told  in  another  direction. 
With  all  its  freedom  from  the  rashness  of  social  revo- 
lution ;  its  almost  painful  abstinence  (as  abolitionists 
have  sometimes  confessed  to  feeling)  from  actual  invec- 
tive against  slavery  in  the  abstract ;  that  letter  is  yet 
pervaded  by  thoughts  whose  issue  can  only  be  worked 
out  by  the  liberty  of  the  slave.  The  word  emancipation 
may  not  be  pronounced,  but  it  hovers  upon  the  Apostle's 
lips. 

The  second  Epistle  is,  in  our  judgment,  a  letter  to  an 
individual.  Certainly  we  are  unable  to  find  in  its  whole 
contents  any  probable  allusion  to  a  Church  personified 
as  a  lady.^  It  is,  as  we  read  it,  addressed  to  Kyria,  an 
Ephesian  lady,  or  one  who  lived  in  the  circle  of  Ephesian 
influence.  It  was  sent  by  the  Apostle  during  an 
absence  from  Ephesus.  That  absence  might  have  been 
for  the  purpose  of  one  of  the  visitations  of  the  Churches 
of  Asia  Minor,  which  (as  we  are  told  by  ancient  Church 
writers)  the  Apostle  was  in  the  habit  of  holding. 
Possibly,  however,  in  the  case  of  a  writer  so  brief  and 
so  reserved  in  the  expression  of  personal  sentiment  as 
St.  John,  the  gush  and  sunshine  of  anticipated  joy  at 
the  close  of  this  note  might  tempt  us  to  think  of  a  rift 


•  There  is  no  doubt  a  large  amount  of  authority  for  this  view  that 
St.  John  addresses  a  Church  personified.  It  has  the  support  of  sacred 
critics  so  different  as  Bishop  Wordsworth  and  Bishop  Lightfoot. 
(£■/>.  to  Colossians  and  Phi'enion,  305),  and  Professor  Westcott  seems 
(with  some  hesitation)  to  lean  to  it.  But  there  is  also  a  great  body 
of  support,  ancient  and  modern,  for  the  literal  view,  (Clem.  Alex., 
Adioibr.  ad  a.  Joan.,  Op.,  iii.  lOU.)  So  Athanasius,  or  the  author  of 
"Synopsis  S.S."  in  Athanasius,  Opp.,  iv.  410.  See  also  the  heading 
of  the  A.  V.  ("  He  exhorteth  a  certain  honourable  matron,  with  her 
children.")  For  reasons  for  accepting  Kyria  rather  than  Electa  as 
the  name,  see  Speaker's  Commentary,  iv.  335. 


284     THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER 

in  some  sky  that  had  been  long  darkened ;  of  the  close 
of  some  protracted  separation,  soon  to  be  forgotten  in 
a  happy  meeting,  "  Having  many  things  to  write  unto 
you,  I  would  not  do  so  by  means  of  paper  and  ink ; 
but  I  hope  to  come  unto  you,  and  to  speak  face  to 
face  that  our  joy  may  be  fulfilled."  ^  The  expression 
might  not  seem  unsuitable  for  a  return  from  exile. 
Several  touches  of  language  and  feeling  in  the  latter 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  Kyria  was  a  widow. 
There  is  no  mention  of  her  husband,  the  father  of  her 
children.  In  the  case  of  a  writer  who  uses  the  names  of 
God  with  such  subtle  and  tender  suitability,  the  associa- 
tion of  Kyria's  "  children  walking  in  truth"  with  "  even 
as  we  received  commandment  from  the  Father"  may 
well  point  to  Him  who  was  for  them  the  Father  of  the 
fatherless.  We  need  not  with  some  expositors  draw 
the  sad  conclusion  that  St.  John  affectionately  hints  that 
there  were  others  of  the  family  who  could  not  be  in- 
cluded in  this  joyful  message.  But  it  would  seem 
highly  probable  from  the  language  used  that  there  were 
several  sons,  and  also  that  Kyria  had  no  daughters. 
Over  these  sons  who  had  lost  one  earthly  parent,  the 
Apostle  rejoices  with  the  heart  of  a  father  in  God.  He 
bursts  out  with  his  eureka,  the  eureka  not  of  a  philo- 
sopher, but  of  a  saint.  "  I  rejoiced  exceedingly  that  I 
found  ^  certain  of  the  number  of  thy  children  walking 
in  truth." 

While  we  may  not  trace  in  this  little  Epistle  the  same 
fountain  of  wide-spreading  influence  as  in  others  to 
which  we  have  referred  ;  while  we  feel  that,  like  its 
author,  its  work  is  deep  and  silent  rather  than  com- 
manding, reflection  will  also  lead  us  to  the  conclusion 

•  Vcr,  12.  •  tDprjKa,  ver.  4. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER.     285 

that  it  is  worthy  of  the  Apostle  who  was  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  "  pillars  "  of  the  faith.  * 

I.  Let  us  reflect  that  this  letter  is  addressed  by  the 
aged  Apostle  to  a  widow,  and  concerns  her  family. 

It  is  significant  that  Kyria  was,  in  all  probability,  a 
widow  of  Ephesus. 

Too  many  of  us  have  more  or  less  acquaintance  with 
one  department  of  French  literature.  A  Parisian  widow 
is  too  often  the  questionable  heroine  of  some  shameful 
romance,  to  have  read  which  is  enough  to  taint  the 
virginity  of  the  young  imagination.  Ephesus  was  the 
Paris  of  Ionia.  Petronius  was  the  Daudet  or  Zola  of 
his  day.  An  Ephesian  widow  is  the  heroine  of  one 
of  the  most  cynically  corrupt  of  his  stories. 

But  "  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  more  than 
abound."  Strange  that  first  in  an  epistle  to  a  Bishop 
of  the  Church  of  Ephesus,  St.  Paul  should  have  pre- 
sented us  with  that  picture  of  a  Christian  widow — 
"  she  that  is  a  widow,  indeed,  and  desolate,  who  hath 
her  hope  set  on  God,  and  continueth  in  prayer  night 
and  day  " — yet  who,  if  she  has  the  devotion,  the  almost 
entire  absorption  in  God,  of  Anna,  the  daughter  of 
Phanuel,  ^  leaves  upon  the  track  of  her  daily  road  to 
heaven  the  trophies  of  Dorcas — "having  brought  up 
children  well,  used  hospitality  to  strangers,  washed  the 
saints'  feet,  relieved  the  afflicted,  diligently  followed 
every  good  work."  *  Such  widows  are  the  leaders  of 
the  long  procession  of  w-omen,  veiled  or  unveiled,  with 
vows  or  without  them,  who  have  ministered  to  Jesus 
through  the  ages.  Christ  has  a  beautiful  art  of  turn- 
ing the  affliction  of  His  daughters  into  the  consolation 

'  "James,  Cephas,  and  John,  who  seemed  to  be  pillars"    Gal.  iL  9. 

'  Luke  ii.  36. 

•  1  Tim.  V.  3,  5,  10. 


286     THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER. 

of  suffering.  When  life's  fairest  hopes  are  disappointed 
by  falsehood,  by  cruel  circumstances,  by  death  ;  the 
broken  heart  is  soothed  by  the  love  of  Christ,  the  only 
love  which  is  proof  against  death  and  change.  The 
ionsolation  thus  received  is  the  most  unselfish  of  gifts. 
It  overflow^  and  is  lavishly  poured  out  upon  the  sick 
and  weary.  With  St.  Paul's  picture  of  a  widow  of  this 
kind,  contrast  another  by  the  same  hand  which  hangs 
close  beside  it.  The  younger  Ephesian  widow,  such 
as  Petronius  described,  was  known  by  St.  Paul  also. 
If  any  count  the  Apostle  as  a  fanatic,  destitute  of  all 
knowledge  of  the  world  because  he  lived  above  it,  let 
them  look  at  those  lines,  which  are  full  of  such  caustic 
power,  as  they  hit  off  the  characteristics  of  certain  idle 
and  wanton  affecters  of  a  sorrow  which  they  never 
felt.^  What  a  distance  between  such  widows  and  Kyria, 
"  beloved  for  the  truth's  sake  which  abideth  in  us ! "  * 

But  the  short  letter  of  St.  John  is  addressed  to  Kyria's 
family  as  well  as  to  herself.  "  The  elder  to  the  ex- 
cellent Kyria  and  her  children."  ' 

There  is  one  question  which  we  naturally  ask  about 
every  school  and  form  of  religion.  It  is  the  question 
which  a  great  English  Professor  of  Divinity  used  to 
ask  his  pupils  to  put  in  a  homely  form  about  every 
religious  scheme  and  mode  of  utterance — "  will  it 
wash  well  ? "  Is  it  an  influence  which  seems  to  be 
productive  and  lasting?  Does  it  abide  through  time 
and  trials  ?  Is  it  capable  of  being  passed  on  to  another 
generation?  Are  plans,  services,  organizations,  preach- 
ings, classes,  vital  or  showy  ?  Are  they  fads  to  meet 
fancies,  or  works  to  supply  wants  ?  Is  that  which  we 
hold  such  sober,  solid  truth,  that  wise  piety  can  say 

•  I  Tim.  V.  6-1 1,  12,  13.  -  2  John  2.  »  Ver.  I. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER.     287 

of  it,  half  in  benediction,  half  in  prophecy  ^ — "  the  truth 
which  abideth  in  us ;  yea,  and  with  us  it  shall  be  for 
ever  ?  " 

2.  We  turn  to  the  contents  of  the  Epistle. 

We  shall  be  better  able  to  appreciate  the  value  of 
these,  if  we  consider  the  state  of  Christian  literature 
at  that  time. 

What  had  Christians  to  read  and  carry  about  with 
them  ?  The  excellent  work  of  the  Bible  Society  was 
physically  impossible  for  long  centuries  to  come.  No 
CiOubt  the  LXX.  version  of  the  Old  Testament  was 
widely  spread.  In  every  great  city  of  the  Roman 
Empire  there  was  a  vast  population  of  Jews.  Many  of 
these  were  baptized  into  the  Church,  and  carried  into  it 
with  them  their  passionate  belief  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Christians  of  the  time  and  place  to  which  we  refer 
could,  probably,  with  little  trouble,  if  not  read,  yet  hear 
the  Old  Covenant  and  able  expositions  of  it.  But  they 
had  not  copies  of  the  entire  New  Testament.  Indeed, 
if  all  the  New  Testament  was  then  written,  it  cer- 
tainly was  not  collected  into  one  volume,  nor  con- 
stituted one  supreme  authority.  "  Many  barbarous 
nations,"  says  a  very  ancient  Father,  "  believe  in  Christ 
without  written  record,  having  salvation  impressed 
through  the  Spirit  in  their  hearts,  and  diligently  pre- 
serving the  old  tradition."  ^  Possibly  a  Church  or  single 
believer  had  one  synoptical  Gospel.  At  Ephesus 
Christians  had  doubtless  been  catechised  in,  and  were 
deeply  imbued  with,  St.  John's  view  of  the  Person,  work, 
and  teaching  of  our  Lord.  This  had  now  been  moulded 
into  shape,  and  definitely  committed  to  writing  in  that 

'  5ta  ry\v  aXrfitiov  rr)v  fuvoxivav  iv  rj/Mf,  Kol  M'^'  ^r*"*'  iarai  lit  Ti» 
aluva.     2  John  ver.  2. 
^  Irenaius,  //«»    iii.  4 


288     THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER. 

glorious  Gospel,  the  Church's  Holy  of  Holies,  St. 
John's  Gospel.  For  them  and  for  their  contemporaries 
there  was  a  living  realization  of  the  Gospel.  They 
had  heard  it  from  eye-witnesses.  They  had  passed 
into  the  wonderland  of  God.  The  earth  on  which 
Jesus  trod  had  blossomed  into  miracle.  The  air  was 
haunted  by  the  echoes  of  His  voice.  They  had,  pro- 
bably, also  a  certain  number  of  the  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul.  The  Christians  of  Ephesus  would  have  a  special 
interest  in  their  own  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  and  in 
the  two  which  were  written  to  their  first  Bishop,  Timothy 
They  had  also  (whether  written  or  not)  impressed 
upon  their  memories  by  their  weekly  Eucharist,  the 
liturgical  Canon  of  consecration  according  to  the 
Ephesian  usage — from  which,  and  not  the  Roman,  the 
Spanish  and  Gallican  seem  to  be  derived.  The  Ephesian 
Christians  had  also  the  first  Epistle  of  St.  John,  which 
in  some  form  accompanied  the  Gospel,  and  is,  indeed, 
a  picture  of  spiritual  life  drawn  from  it.  But  let  us 
remember  that  the  Epistle  is  not  of  a  character  to  be 
very  quickly  or  readily  learned  by  heart.  Its  subtle, 
latent  links  of  connection  do  not  present  many  grap- 
pling hooks  for  the  memory  to  fasten  itself  to.  Copies 
also  must  have  been  comparatively  few. 

Now  let  us  see  how  the  second  Epistle  may  well 
have  been  related  to  the  first. 

Supremely,  and  above  all  else,  the  first  Epistle  con- 
tained three  warnings,  very  necessary  for  those  times, 
(i)  There  was  a  danger  of  losing  the  true  Christ,  the 
Word  made  Flesh,  Who  for  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins 
did  shed  out  of  His  most  precious  side  both  water  and 
blood — in  a  false,  because  shadowy  and  ideal  Christ. 
(2)  There  was  danger  of  losing  true  love,  and  therefore 
spiritual  life,  with  truth.     (3)  With  the  true  Christ  and 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  SYRIA'S  LETTER.     289 

true  love  there  was  a  danger  of  losing  the  true  com- 
tnandment — love  of  God  and  of  the  brethren.  Now 
in  the  second  Epistle  these  very  three  warnings  were 
written  on  a  leaflet  in  a  form  more  calculated  for  circu- 
lation and  for  remembrance.  (l)  Against  the  peril  of 
faith,  of  losing  the  true  Christ.  "  Many  deceivers  are 
gone  out  into  the  world — they  who  confess  not  Jesus 
Christ  coming  in  flesh.  This  is  the  deceiver  and  the 
antichrist."  ^  With  the  true  Christ,  the  true  doctrine 
of  Christ  would  also  vanish,  and  with  it  all  living  hold 
upon  God.  Progress  was  the  watchword  ;  but  it  was 
in  reality  regress.  "  Every  one  who  abideth  not  in  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  hath  not  God."'  (2)  Against  the 
peril  of  losing  love.  "  I  beseech  thee,  Kyria  .  .  .  that 
we  love  one  another."  '  (3)  Against  the  peril  of  losing 
the  true  commandment  (the  great  spiritual  principle  of 
charity),  or  the  true  commandments*  (that  principle  in 
the  details  of  life).  "  And  this  is  love,  that  we  walk 
after  His  commandments.  This  is  the  commandment, 
that  even  as  ye  heard  from  the  beginning  ye  should 
walk  in  it."  ^ 

Here  then  were  the  chief  practical  elements  of  the 
first  Epistle  contracted  into  a  brief  and  easily  remem- 
bered shape. 

Easily  remembered,  too,  was  the  stem,  practical  pro- 
hibition of  the  intimacies  of  hospitality  with  those 
who  came  to  the  home  of  the  Christian,  in  the  capacity 
of  emissaries  of  the  antichrist  above  indicated.     "  Re- 


'  Ver.  7.  «  Ver.  9.  •  Ver,  5, 

*      Commandtnents  and  commandment — Love  strives  to  realise  in 

detail  every  separate  expression  of  the  will  of  God."    (Prof.  Westcott, 

Epistles  of  St.  John,  217). 
Ver.  6. 

19 


290     THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER. 

ceive  him  not  into  your  house,  and  good  speed  salute 
him  not  with."  ^ 

Many  are  offended  with  this.  No  doubt  Christianity 
is  the  religion  of  love — "the  epiphany  of  the  sweet- 
naturedness  and  philanthropy  of  God."'  We  very 
often  look  upon  heresy  or  unbelief  with  the  tolerance  of 
curiosity  rather  than  of  love.  At  all  events,  the  Gospel 
has  its  intolerance  as  well  as  tolerance.  St.  John  cer- 
tainly had  this.  It  is  not  a  true  conception  in  art  which 
invests  him  with  the  mawkish  sweetness  of  perpetual 
youth.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  he  was  a  son  of 
Thunder  to  the  last.  He  who  believes  and  knows  must 
formulate  a  dogma.  A  dogma  frozen  by  formality,  or 
soured  by  hate,  or  narrowed  by  stupidity,  makes  a 
bigot  In  reading  the  Church  History  of  the  first  four 
centuries  we  are  often  tempted  to  ask,  why  all  this 
subtlety,  this  theology-spinning,  this  dogma-hammer- 
ing ?  The  answer  stands  out  clear  above  the  mists  of 
controversy.  Without  all  this  the  Church  would  have 
lost  the  conception  of  Christ,  and  thus  finally  Christ 
Himself,  St.  John's  denunciations  have  had  a  function 
in  Christendom  as  well  as  his  love. 

'  It  is,  probably,  the  existence  of  these  verses(vv.  lO,  ll)  which  acts 
as  a  stimulus  to  many  liberal  Christian  commentators  in  favour  of  the 
ultra-mystical  view,  that  the  lady  addressed  in  this  Epistle  is  a 
Church  personified.  It  should  be  carefully  noted  that  St.  John 
£  peaks  of  a  formal  summons,  so  to  speak,  from  an  emissary  of  anti- 
christ as  such,  (cf  Tij  ipx^rai.  irpbs  iifxas,  ver.  lo).  St.  John,  also,  must 
have  detected  a  danger  in  the  very  gentleness  of  Kyria's  character, 
or  in  the  disposition  of  some  of  her  children.  So  much,  indeed,  might 
;  cam  implied  in  the  sudden,  solemn,  and  rather  startling  warning,  which 
tntreated  constant  continuous  care  (jSXtTrerc  iavrovs),  so  that  they 
rhould  not  in  some  momentary  impulse,  under  the  charm  of  some 
deceiver,  lose  what  they  had  wrought,  and  with  it  reward  in  fulness 
(Vf  a  jtt^  airoX^ff  jjTC,  ver.  lo). 

'  Titus  iii.  4. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER.     291 


3.  There  are  two  most  precious  indications  of  the 
highest  Christian  truth  with  which  we  may  conclude. 

We  have  prefixed  to  this  Epistle  that  beautiful 
Apostolic  salutation  which  is  found  in  two  only  among 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.*  After  that  simple,  but  exqui- 
site expression  of  blessing  merged  in  prophecy — "  the 
truth  which  abideth  in  us — yes !  and  with  us  it  shall 
be  for  ever  " — there  comes  another  verse  set  in  the  same 
key.  "  There  shall  be  with  us  grace,  mercy,  peace,  from 
God  the  Father,  and  from  Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  the 
Father,  in  truth  "  of  thought,  "  and  love  "  of  life.^ 

This  rush  and  reduplication  of  words  is  not  very  like 
the  usual  reserve  and  absence  of  emotional  excitement 
in  St.  John's  style.  Can  it  be  that  something  (possibly 
the  glorious  death  of  martyrdom  by  which  Timothy 
died)  led  St.  John  to  use  words  which  were  probably 
familiar  to  Ephesian  Christians  ? 

However  this  may  be,  let  us  live  by  and  learn  from 
those  lovely  words.  Our  poverty  wants  grace,  our 
guilt  wants  mercy,  our  misery  wants  peace.  Let  us  ever 
keep  the  Apostle's  order.  Do  not  let  us  put  peace,  our 
feeling  of  peace,  first.  The  emotionalists'  is  a  topsy-turvy 
theology.  Apostles  do  not  say  "  peace  and  grace,"  but 
"  grace  and  peace." 

One  more — in  an  age  which  substitutes  an  ideal 
something  called  the  spirit  of  Christianity  for  Christ, 
let  us  hold  fast  to  that  which  is  the  essence  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  kernel  of  our  three  creeds.  "  To  confess 
Jesus  Christ  coming  in  flesh.'"  Couple  with  this  a 
canon  of  the  First  Epistle—"  confesseth  Jesus  Christ 


»  I  Tim.  i.  I  ;  2  Tim.  i.  2. 

»  'Eorat  y.id''  vfiCiv  xapis,  tXeoi,  elpr)Vii,  k.t.\.     2  John  ver.  3. 

•  'Irjffoui'  XpKTTov  epxoiJ-evov  iv  ffapni.     2  John  ver.  J, 


292     THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER. 

come  in  flesh."  ^  The  second  is  the  Incarnation  fact 
with  its  abiding  consequences ;  the  first,  the  Incarna- 
tion principle  ever  living  in  a  Person,  Who  will  also  be 
personally  manifested.  This  is  the  substance  of  the 
Gospels  ;  this  the  life  of  prayers  and  sacraments  ;  this 
the  expectation  of  the  saints. 

NOTES. 

Ver.  I.  The  Elder.']  This  word  has  played  a  great  -part 
in  an  important  controversy.  It  is  argued  that  the  Elder  of 
this  and  of  the  Third  Epistle  is  the  author  indeed  of  the  first 
Epistle  and  of  the  Gospel,  but  cannot  be  the  Apostle  St.  John, 
who  would  not,  (it  is  alleged,)  call  himself  6  Trpea-^vrepos. 
And  Eusebius  {H.E.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  ult.)  preserves  a  fragment 
from  Papias,  which  he  misunderstands  to  indicate  that  there 
were  two  Johns  (see  Riggenbach,  Leben  Jesu,  59,  60).  But 
even  if  the  word  be  Presbyter,  and  points  to  an  ecclesiastical 
title,  it  might  stand  precisely  on  the  same  footing  as  St.  Peter's 
language — "  the  elders  among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  2.  fellow 
elder"  (i  Pet.  v.  i).  The  Elder  at  the  opening  of  the  Second 
and  Third  Epistles  of  St.  John,  may  well  signify  the  aged 
Apostle,  the  oldest  of  the  company  of  Jesus,  the  one  living 
representative  of  the  traditions  of  Galilee  and  Jerusalem. 

Ver.  7.  The  seducer.']  6  irXdvos.  The  almost  technical  force 
of  this  word  would  be  adequately  appreciated  only  by  readers 
more  or  less  imbued  with  Jewish  ideas.  It  was  indeed  the 
really  strong  motive  m  the  terrible  game  which  the  Jewish 
priests  played  in  bringing  about  the  death  of  our  Lord.  The 
process  against  the  Mesz'lh,  "seducer,"  is  drawn  out  in  the 
Talmud  with  an  effrontery  at  once  puerile  and  revolting.  The 
man  accused  of  seduction  was  to  be  drawn  into  conversation, 
while  two  witnesses  were  hidden  in  the  next  room, — and 
candles  were  to  be  lighted,  as  if  accidentally,  close  by  him, 
that  the  witnesses  might  be  sure  that  they  had  seen,  as  well  as 
heard  the  heretic.  He  was  to  be  called  upon  to  retract  his 
heretical  pravity.  If  he  refused,  he  was  to  be  brought  before 
the  Council,  and  stoned  if  the  verdict  was  against  him.     The 

•  '\i\covv  Xpurbv  iv  aapd  i\r]\v66Ta.     I  John  iv.  S. 


THEOLOGY  AND  LIFE  IN  KYRIA'S  LETTER.     293 

Talmudists  add  that  this  was  the  legal  process  carried  out 
against  Jesus  :  that  He  was  condemned  upon  the  testimony 
of  two  witnesses  ;  and  that  the  crime  of  "  misleading  "  was  the 
only  one  which  was  thus  formally  dealt  with.  (See  references 
to  the  Talmud  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  of  Babylon,  Vie  de  Jesus, 
Renan,  394,  N.  i).  The  Gospels  tell  us  that  the  accusation 
against  our  Lord  was  "  misleading :  "  and  the  terrible  word 
in  the  verse  which  we  are  examining  was  actually  applied  to 
Him,  («Keii/os  6  TrXai/of,  Matt,  xxvii.  63  ;  -nkava  t6v  S^Xov,  John 
vii.  12  ;  fif]  Koi  vfiels  neTrXavrjade ;  John  vii.  47). 

"  Excepting  some  minutiae,  the  product  of  the  Rabbinical 
imagination,  the  narrative  of  the  Evangelists  answers,  point 
by  point,  to  the  process  actually  laid  down  by  the  Talmud  " 
(Renan,  ut  sup.). 

Ver.  9.  Every  one  who  leadeth  forward!\  ttSs  6  irpodycov 
is  certainly  the  true  reading  here ;  the  commander  himself 
pushing  boldly  onward,  and  also  carrying  others  with  him. 
The  allusion  is  polemical  to  the  vaunted  ;progress  of  the 
Gnostic  teachers. 

"  The  doctrine  which  is  Chrisfs."']  What  is  that  ?  John 
vii.  16,  17.  The  doctrine  which  Christ  emphatically  called 
"  My  doctrine,*'  "  the  doctrine."  No  doubt  the  word  (StSa^i?) 
sometimes  means  the  act,  sometimes  the  mode,  of  teaching 
(Mark  xii.  38  ;  i  Cor.  xiv.  6) ;  but  "  it  underwent  a  transforma- 
tion which  converted  it  into  a  term  synonymous  with  dogmatic 
teaching,"  with  the  body  of  faithful  doctrine  which  was  the 
ultimate  type  and  norm  to  which  all  statements  must  be  con- 
formed, (Tit.  i.  9;  Rom.  vi.,  xvi.  17;  see  also  Matt.  xvi.  12; 
Acts  V.  28,  xvii.  19;  Heb.  xiii.  2.)  It  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  in  the  R.V.  the  word  "  doctrine  "  has  disappeared  from 
all  these  passages,  Romans  xvi.  17  alone  excepted.  St.  John's 
language  in  this  verse  seems  quite  decisive. 


THE    THIRD   EPISTLE   OF  ST,  JOHN, 


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DISCOURSE   XVII. 

THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION. 

•'The  elder  unto  the  well  beloved  Gaius.  .  .  ,  He  that  doeth  good 
is  of  God  ;  but  he  that  doeth  evil  hath  not  seen  God." — 3  John  i,  II. 

THE  mere  analysis  of  this  note  must  necessarily 
present  a  meagre  outline.  There  is  a  brief 
expression  of  pleasure  at  the  tidings  of  the  sweet  and 
gracious  hospitality  of  Gaius  which  was  brought  by 
certain  missionary  brethren  to  Ephesus,  coupled  with 
the  assurance  of  the  truth  and  consistency  of  his  whole 
walk.  The  haughty  rejection  of  Apostolic  letters  of 
communion  by  Diotrephes  is  mentioned  with  a  burst 
of  indignation.  A  contrast  to  Diotrephes  is  found  in 
Demetrius,  with  the  threefold  witness  to  a  life  so 
worthy  of  imitation.  A  brief  greeting—  and  we  have 
done  with  the  last  written  words  of  St.  John  which 
the  Church  possesses. 

I. 

Let  us  first  see  whether,  without  passing  over  the 
bounds  of  historical  probability,  we  can  fill  up  this 
bare   outline    with   some    colouring  of    circumstance. 

To  two  of  the  three  individuals  named  in  this  Epistle 
we  seem  to  have  some  clue. 

The  Gains  addressed  is,  of  course,  Caius  in  Latin, 
a  very  common  praenomen,  no  doubt. 


THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION.  301 

Three  persons  of  the  name  appear  in  the  New 
Testament  * — unless  we  suppose  St.  John's  Caius  to 
be  a  fourth.  But  the  generous  and  beautiful  hospi- 
tality adverted  to  in  this  note  is  entirely  of  a  piece 
with  the  character  of  him  of  whom  St.  Paul  had 
written,  "  Gaius,  mine  host,  and  of  the  whole  Church."  * 
We  know  further,  from  one  of  the  most  ancient  and 
authentic  documents  of  Christian  literature,  that  the 
Church  of  Corinth  (to  which  this  Caius  belonged)  was, 
just  at  the  period  when  St,  John  wrote,  in  a  lament- 
able state  of  schismatic  confusion.  Diotrephes  may, 
at  such  a  period,  have  been  aspiring  to  put  forward 
his  claim  at  Corinth ;  and  may,  in  his  ambitious 
proceedings,  have  rejected  from  communion  the  brethren 
whom  St.  John  had  sent  to  Caius.'  A  yet  more 
interesting  reflection  is  suggested  by  a  writing  of 
considerable  authority.  The  writer  of  the  "  Synopsis 
of  Holy  Scripture,"  which  stands  amongst  the  Works 
of  Athanasius,  says — "the  Gospel  according  to  John 
was  both  dictated  by  John  the  Apostle  and  beloved 
when  in  exile  at  Patmos,  and  by  him  was  published 
in  Ephesus,  through  Caius  the  beloved  and  friend  of  the 
Apostles,  of  whom  Paul  also  writing  to  the  Romans 


'  Caius,  a  Macedonian  (Acts  xix.  29) ;  Caius  of  Derbe  (Acts  xx.  4) ; 
Caius  of  Corinth  (Rom.  xvi.  23 ;  I  Cor.  i.  14). 

^  Rom.  xvi.  23. 

^  No  doubt  ver.  10  presents  some  difficulty.  Voyages  between 
Corinth  were  regularly  and  easily  performed.  Still  it  is  scarcely 
probable  that  the  aged  Apostle  should  have  ccntempated  such  a 
voyage.  But  the  form  (eav  iXBw)  purpostly  exprcss.s  possibility 
rather  than  probability— the  smallest  amount  of  presumption — if  I 
shall  come,  which  is  not  quite  impossible.  (Qonaldson,  Gr.  Gr.,  "Con- 
ditional Propositions."  501.)  The  hope  of  seeing  Caius  "  face  to  face  " 
(vcr.  14)  contains  no  objection,  as  it  may  refer  to  a  visit  o  Caius  to 
Ephesus. 


•3M  THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION. 

saith,  Caius  mine  host,  and  of  the  whole  Church."  ^  This 
would  give  a  very  marked  significance  to  one  touch 
in  this  Third  Epistle  of  St.  John.  The  phrase  here 
"  and  we  bear  witness  also,  and  ye  know  that  ottr 
•witness  is  true" — clearly  points  back  to  the  closing 
attestation  of  the  Gospel — "  and  we  know  that  his  witness 
is  true."'  He  counts  upon  a  quick  recognition  of  a 
common  memory.^ 

Demetrius  is,  of  course,  a  name  redolent  of  the 
worship  of  Demeter  the  Earth-Mother,  and  of 
Ephesian  surroundings.  No  reader  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment needs  to  be  reminded  of  the  riot  at  Ephesus, 
which  is  told  at  such  length  in  the  history  of  St.  Paul's 
voyages  by  St.  Luke.  The  conjecture  that  the  agita- 
tor of  the  turbulent  guild  of  silversmiths  who  made 
silver  shrines  of  Diana  may  have  become  the  Deme- 
trius, the  object  of  St.  John's  lofty  commendation,  is 
by  no  means  improbable.  There  is  a  peculiar  fulness 
in  the  narrative  of  the  Acts,  and  an  amplitude  and 
exactness  in  the  reports  of  the  speeches  of  Demetrius 
and  of  the  town- clerk  which  betray  both  unusually 
detailed  information,  and  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
writer  that  the  subject  was  one  of  much  interest  for 
many  leaders.  The  very  words  of  Demetrius  about 
Pau.  evince  that  uneasy  sense  of  the  powers  of 
fascination  possessed  by  the  Apostle  which  is  often 
the  first  timid  witness  of  reluctant  conviction.*     The 

*  "Synopsis  S.S."  '76.     (S.  Athanas.,  Opp.,  iv.  433.     Edit.  Migne.) 

*  Read  together  3  John  12,  and  John  xxi.  24. 

'  The  writer  had  worked  out  his  conclusions  about  Caius  indepen- 
dently before  he  happened  to  read  Bengel's  note.  "  Caius  Corinthi  de 
quo  Rom.  xvi.  23,  vel  huic  Caio,  Johannis  amico,  fuit  similliinus  in 
hospitalite — vel  idem; — si  idem,  ex  Achaia  in  Asiam  migravit,  vel 
Corinthum  Johannes  hanc  epistolaom  misit." 

*  "  Almost  throughout  all  Asia  this  Paul  hath  persuaded  and  turned 


THE   QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIG'ON.  303 

whole  story  would  be  of  thrilling  interest  to  those 
who,  knowing  well  what  Demetrius  had  become,  were 
here  told  what  he  once  had  been.  In  a  very  ancient 
document  (the  so-called  "Apostolic  Constitutions")-^ 
we  read  that  "Demetrius  was  appointed  Bishop  of 
Philadelphia  by  me,"  i.e.,  by  the  Apostle  John.  To  the 
Bishop  of  that  city,  so  often  shaken  by  the  earthquakes 
of  that  volcanic  city,  came  the  commendation — "  I  know 
thy  works  that  thou  didst  keep  My  word ; "  and  the 
assuring  promise  that  he  should,  when  the  victory  was 
won,  have  the  solidity  and  permanence  of  "a  pillar" 
in  a  "temple"^  that  no  convulsion  could  shake  down. 
The  witness  then,  which  stands  on  record  for  the 
Bishop  of  Philadelphia,  is  threefold ;  the  threefold 
witness  of  the  First  Epistle  on  a  reduced  scale — the 
witness  of  the  world ;  ^  the  witness  of  the  Truth  itself, 
even  of  Jesus;*  the  witness  of  the  Church — including 
John.® 

II. 

We  may  now  advert  to  the  contents  and  general  style 
of  this  letter. 

I.  As  to  its  contents. 

I.  It  supplies  us  with  a  valuable  test  of  Christian 
life,  in  what  may  be  called  the  Christian  instinct  of 
missionary  affection,  possessed  in  such  full  measure  by 
Caius.® 

away  much  people,  saying,  that  they  be  no  gods,  which  are  made 
with  hands." — Acts  xix.  26. 
'  vii.  46. 

*  Apcc.  iii.  7,  8,  12. 
'  "All  men." 

*  Ivat  vw  a.\jTr\%  rrjs  aXrjOeias,  i.e.,  Jesus  (Apoc.  iii.  7»  ^2). 
'  "  And  we  also  bear  witness."     3  John  12. 

*  3  John  5,  6,  7. 


304  THE   QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION. 

This,  indeed,  is  an  ingredient  of  Christian  character. 
Do  we  admire  and  feel  attracted  by  missionaries?  They 
are  knight-errants  of  the  Faith  ;  leaders  of  the  "  forlorn 
hope  "  of  Christ's  cause ;  bearers  of  the  flag  of  the  cross 
through  the  storms  of  battle.  Do  we  wish  to  honour 
and  to  help  them,  and  feel  ennobled  by  doing  so  ? 
He  who  has  no  almost  enthusiastic  regard  for  mission- 
aries has  not  the  spirit  of  primitive  Christianity  within 
his  breast. 

2.  The  Church  is  beset  with  different  dangers  from 
very  different  quarters.  The  second  Epistle  of  St.  John 
has  its  bold  unmistakable  warning  of  danger  from  the 
philosophical  atmosphere  which  is  not  only  round 
the  Church,  but  necessarily  finds  its  way  within.  Those 
who  assume  to  be  leaders  of  intellectual  and  even 
of  spiritual  progress  sometimes  lead  away  from  Christ. 
The  test  of  scientific  truth  is  accordance  with  the  pro- 
position which  embodies  the  last  discovery  ;  the  test  of 
religious  truth  is  accordance  with  the  proposition  which 
embodies  the  first  discovery,  i.e.,  "the  doctrine  of  Christ. 
Progress  outside  this  is  regress  ;  it  is  desertion  first 
of  Christ,  ultimately  of  God.^  As  the  second  Epistle 
warns  the  Church  of  peril  from  speculative  ambition, 
so  the  third  Epistle  marks  a  danger  from  personal 
ambition,'^  arrogating  to  itself  undue  authority  within 
the  Church.  Diotrephes  in  all  probability  was  a 
bishop.  At  Rome  there  has  been  a  permanent 
Diotrephes  in  the  office  of  the  Papacy ;  how  much  this 
has  had  to  say  to  the  dislocation  of  Christendom,  Gcd 
knows.  But  there  are  other  smaller  and  more  vulgar 
continuators  of  Diotrephes,  who  occupy  no  Vatican. 
Piiests  !    But  there  are  priests  in  different  senses.    The 

'  2  Jchn  9.  *  3  John  9,  lO. 


THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION.  305 

priest  who  stands  to  minister  in  holy  things,  the  true 
Lcitourgos,  is  rightly  so-called.  But  there  is  an  arro- 
gant priestship  which  would  do  violence  to  conscience, 
and  interpose  rudely  between  God  and  the  soul.  Priests 
in  this  sense  are  called  by  different  names.  They  are 
clad  in  different  dresses — some  in  chasubles,  some  in 
frock-coats,  some  in  petticoats.  "  Down  with  priest- 
craft," is  even  the  cry  of  many  of  them.  The  priest 
v;ho  stands  to  offer  sacrifice  may  or  may  not  be  a  priest 
in  the  evil  sense  ;  the  priest  (who  abjures  the  name) 
who  is  a  master  of  religious  small-talk  of  the  popular 
kind,  and  winds  people  to  his  own  ends  round  his  little 
finger  by  using  them  deftly,  is  often  the  modern  edition 
of  Diotrephes. 

3.  This  brief  Epistle  contains  one  of  those  apparently 
mere  spiritual  truisms,  which  make  St.  John  the  most 
powerful  and  comprehensive  of  all  spiritual  teachers. 
He  had  suggested  a  warning  to  Caius,  which  serves 
as  the  link  to  connect  the  example  of  Diotrephes 
which  he  has  denounced,  with  that  of  Demetrius  which 
he  is  about  to  commend.  "  Beloved  !  "  he  cries,  "  imitate 
not  that  which  is  evil,  but  that  which  is  good."  A 
glorious  little  "  Imitation  of  Christ,"  a  compression  of 
his  own  Gospel,  the  record  of  the  Great  Example  in 
three  words  !  ^  Then  follows  this  absolutely  exhaus- 
tive division,  which  covers  the  whole  moral  and 
spiritual  world.  "  He  that  doeth  good,"  (the  whole 
principle  of  whose  moral  life  is  this,)  "  is  of,"  has  his 
origin  from,  "God  ;  "  "he  that  doeth  evil  hath  not  seen 
God,"  sees  Him  not  as  a  consequence  o  having  spiri- 
tually looked  upon  Him.  Here,  at  last,  we  have  the 
flight  of  the  eagle's  wing,  the  glance  of  the  eagle's  eye. 

'  lit/JLOv  ,  ,  .  ri  iyaOuf,  3  John  1 1. 

20 


306  THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION. 

Especially  valuable  are  these  words,  almost  at  the  close 
of  the  Apostolic  age  and  of  the  New  Testament  Scrip- 
ture. They  help  us  to  keep  the  delicate  balance  of 
truth ;  they  guard  us  against  all  abuse  of  the  precious 
doctrines  of  grace.  Several  texts  are  midilaied ;  more 
are  con\eniently  dropped  out.  How  seldom  does  one  see 
the  whole  context  quoted,  in  tracts  and  sheets,  of  that 
most  blessed  passage — "  if  we  walk  in  the  light,  as 
He  is  in  the  light,  the  blood  of  Jesus,  His  Son,  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin  ?"  How  often  do  we  see  these  words 
at  all — "  he  that  doeth  good  is  of  God,  but  he  that  doeth 
evil  hath  not  seen  God  ?  "  Perhaps  it  may  be  a  linger- 
ing suspicion  that  a  text  which  comes  out  of  a  very 
short  Epistle  is  worth  very  little.  Perhaps  doctrinalism 
a  oiitrance  considers  that  the  sentiment  "  savours  of 
works."  But,  at  all  events,  there  is  terrible  decisive- 
ness about  these  antithetic  propositions.  For  each  life 
is  described  in  section  and  in  plan  by  one  or  other 
of  the  two.  The  whole  complicated  series  of  thought, 
actions,  habits,  purposes,  summed  up  in  the  words  life 
and  character,  is  a  continuous  stream  issuing  from  the 
man  who  docs  every  moment  of  his  existence.  The 
stream  is  either  pure,  bright,  cleansing,  gladdening, 
capable  of  being  tracked  by  a  thread  of  emerald 
wherever  it  flows ;  or  it  carries  with  it  on  its  course 
blackness,  bitterness,  and  barrenness.  Men  must  be 
plainly  dealt  with.  They  may  hold  any  creed,  or 
follow  any  round  of  religious  practices.  There  are 
creeds  which  are  nobly  true,  others  which  are  false 
and  feeble — practices  which  are  beautiful  and  elevating, 
others  which  are  petty  and  unprofitable.  They  may 
repeat  the  shiboleth  ever  so  accurately ;  and  follow  the 
observances  ever  so  closely.  They  may  sing  hymns 
until  their  throats  are   hoarse,  and  beat  drums  until 


THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION.  307 

their  wrists  are  sore.  But  St.  John's  propositions 
ring  out,  loud  and  clear,  and  syllable  themselves  in 
questions,  which  one  day  or  other  the  conscience  will 
put  to  us  with  terrible  distinctness.  Are  you  one  who 
is  ever  doing  good  ;  or  one  who  is  not  doing  good  ? 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner ! "  may  well  rush  to 
our  lips.  But  that,  when  opportunity  is  given,  must  be 
followed  by  another  prayer.  Not  only — "  wash  away 
my  sins."  Something  more.  "  Fill  and  purify  me  with 
Thy  Spirit,  that,  pardoned  and  renewed,  I  may  become 
good,  and  be  doing  good."  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
the  Church  is  full  of  souls  "  dying  of  their  morality." 
Is  it  not  at  least  equally  true  to  say  that  the  Church  is 
full  of  souls  dying  of  their  spirituality  ?  That  is — 
souls  dying  in  one  case  of  unreal  morality ;  in  the  other 
of  unreal  spirituality,  which  juggles  with  spiritual 
words,  making  a  sham  out  of  them.  Morality  which 
is  not  spiritual,  is  imperfect ;  spirituality  which  is 
not  moralized  through  and  through  is  of  the  spirit 
of  evil. 

It  is  a  great  thing  that  in  these  last  sentences,  written 
with  a  trembling  hand,  which  shrank  from  the  labour 
of  pen  and  ink,*  the  Apostle  should  have  lifted  a  word 
(probably  current  in  the  social  atmosphere  of  Ephesus 
among  spiritualists  and  astrologers  ^),  from  the  low 
associations  with  which  it  was  undeservedly  associated  ; 
and  should  have  rung  out  high  and  clear  the  Gospel's 
everlasting  justification,  the  final  harmony  of  the  teach- 
ing of  grace — "  he  that  doeth  good  is  of  God." 

>  3  John  13. 

*  The  verb  oriaBoTroi^tv  is  found  in  a  few  places  in  the  LXX.  and 
New  Testament.  "  Amcngst  profane  writers,  abtrclogers  only  used 
this  verb.  They  signified  by  it,  /  offer  a  good  omen.  So  in  Proclus 
and  others."     See  Bretsch.  and  Grimm,  6.  v.  d7a(?07roi^w. 


3o8  THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION. 


II. 

The  style  of  the  third  Epistle  of  St,  John  is  certainly 
that  of  an  old  man.  It  is  reserved  in  language  and  in 
doctrine.  God  is  thrice  and  thrice  only  mentioned.' 
Jesus  is  not  once  expressly  uttered.     But 

"...  They  are  not  empty-hearted  whose  low  sound 
Reverbs  no  hollowness.'' 

In  religion,  as  in  everything  else,  we  are  earnest,  not 
by  aiming  at  earnestness,  but  by  aiming  at  an  object. 
Religious  language  should  be  deep  and  real,  rather 
than  demonstrative.  It  is  not  safe  to  play  with  sacred 
names.  To  pronounce  them  at  random  for  the  purpose 
of  being  effective  and  impressive  is  to  take  them  in 
vain.  What  a  wealth  of  reverential  love  there  is  in  that 
— "  for  the  sake  of  the  Name  !  "  ^  Old  copyists  some- 
times thought  to  improve  upon  the  impressiveness  of 
Apostles  by  cramming  in  sacred  names.  They  only 
maimed  what  they  touched  with  clumsy  hand.  A 
deeper  sense  of  the  Sacramental  Presence  is  in  the 
hushed,  awful,  reverence  of  "not  discerning  the  Body," 
than  in  the  interpolated  "not  discerning  of  the  Lord's 
Body."  Even  so  "  The  Name,"  perhaps,  speaks  more 
to  the  heart,  and  implies  more  than  "  His  Name. 
It  is,  indeed,  the  "  beautiful  Name,"  by  the  which 
we  are  called.  And  sometimes  in  sermons,  or  in 
Eucharistic  "  Gloria  in  Excelsis,"  or  in  hymns  that 
have  come  from  such  as  St.  Bernard,  or  in  sick 
rooms,  it  shall  go  up  with  our  sweetest  music,  and 
waken  our  tenderest   thoughts,  and   be   "as   ointment 

'"Worthily  of  God  "   ver.  6;  "is  of  God — hath  not  seen  God' 
ver.  II. 
*  Ver.  7. 


THE  QUIETNESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION.  309 

poured  forth."  But  what  an  underlying  Gospel,  what 
an  intense  suppressed  flame  there  is  behind  these  quiet 
words  !  This  letter  says  nothing  of  rapture,  or  pro- 
phecy, of  miracle.  It  lies  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Church,  as  we  find  it  even  now.  It  has  a  word  for 
friendship.  It  seeks  to  individualise  its  benediction.^ 
A  hush  of  evening  rests  upon  the  note.  May  such  an 
evening  close  upon  our  old  age  1 

NOTES. 

Ver.  2.  .  .  thy  soul.'}  Strange  difficulty  seems  to  be  felt  in 
some  quarters  about  the  word  yf^vxTj,  as  used  by  our  Lord  and 
the  Apostles.  The  difficulty  arises  from  a  singular  argument 
advanced  by  M.  Renan.  He  maintains  that  Christ  and  His 
first  followers  knew  nothing  of  "the  soul"  as  the  immortal 
principle  in  man — that  in  him  which  is  capable  of  being  saved 
or  lost.  It  was  simply  either  the  animal  natural  life,^  (Matt.  ii. 
?o) ;  or  2X  most  the  vague  Greek  immortality  of  the  shadows, 
AS  opposed  to  the  later  Hebrew  Resurrection-life.  But  there 
are  very  numerous  passages  in  the  New  Testament  where 
*'  soul  "  can  only  be  used  for  "  life  as  created  by  God ; "  thinking 
substance,  different  from  the  body  and  indestructible  by  death, 
created  with  possibilities  of  eternal  happiness  or  misery. 
(The  following  passages  are  decisive— Matt.  x.  28,  xi.  29; 
Acts  ii.  27  ;  Heb.  xiii.  17 ;  i  Pet.  i.  9,  22,  ii.  1 1,  25 ;  Jas.  i.  21, 
V.  20;  Apoc.  vi.  9,  XX.  4;  3  John  2.) 

'  "  The  friends  salute  thee :  salute  the  friends  by  name,"  ver.  14. 
The  mention  cf  friendship  is  not  common  in  the  New  Testament. 
Beautiful  exceptions  will  be  found  in  Luke  xii.  4;  John  xi.  II, 
XV.  14,  15  ;  cf.  Acts  xxvii.  3. 

•  As  indicated  by  breathing — from  ^i/x«i 


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